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Labor And Reward In Science: Commentary on Cassidy Sugimoto's Program on Information Science Talk
Labor And Reward In Science: Commentary on Cassidy Sugimoto's Program on Information Science Talk
Cassidy Sugimoto is Associate Professor in the School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana University Bloomington, where researches within the domain of scholarly communication and scientometrics, examining the formal and informal ways in which knowledge producers consume and disseminate scholarship. She presented this talk, entitled Labor And Reward In Science: Do Women Have An Equal Voice In Scholarly Communication? A Brown Bag With Cassidy Sugimoto, as part of the Program on Information Science Brown Bag Series.
In her talk, illustrated by the slides below, Sugimoto highlights the roots of gender disparities in science.
Sugimoto abstracted her talk as follows:
Despite progress, gender disparities in science persist. Women remain underrepresented in the scientific workforce and under rewarded for their contributions. This talk will examine multiple layers of gender disparities in science, triangulating data from scientometrics, surveys, and social media to provide a broader perspective on the gendered nature of scientific communication. The extent of gender disparities and the ways in which new media are changing these patterns will be discussed. The talk will end with a discussion of interventions, with a particular focus on the roles of libraries, publishers, and other actors in the scholarly ecosystem..
In her talk, Sugimoto stressed a number of patterns in scientific publication:
- Demise of single authorshop complicates notions of credit, rewards, labor, and responsibility
- There are distincted patterns of gender disparity in scientific publications: Male-authored publications predominate in most field (with a few exceptions such as Library Science); women collaborating more domestically than internationally on publication; and woman-authored publications tend to be cited less (even within the same tier of journals).
- Looking across categories of contribution — the most isolated is performing the experiment. And Women are most likely to fill this role. Further, if we look across male-and-female led teams, we see that the distribution of work across these teams varies dramatically.
- When surveying teams — women tended to value all of the forms of contributions more than men with one exception. Women judge technical work, which is more likely to be conducted by women, as less valuable.
- Composition of authorship has consequences for what is studied. Womens' research focuses more often than men on areas relevant to both genders or to women.
Sugimoto notes that these findings are consistent with pervasive gender discrimination. Further, women as well as men frequently discriminate against other women — for example, in evaluation of professionalism, evaluation of work, and in salary offers
Much more detail on these points can be found in Sugimoto professional writings.
Sugimoto's talk drew on a variety of sources: publication data in the Web of Science; from acknowledgement and authorship statements in PLOS journals. Open bibliometric data, such as that produced by PLOS, the Initiative for Open Citation, and various badging initiatives can help us to more readily bring disparities to light.
At the conclusion of her talk, Sugimoto suggested the following roles for librarians:
Sugimoto's talk drew on a variety of sources: publication data in the Web of Science; from acknowledgement and authorship statements in PLOS journals. Open bibliometric data, such as that produced by PLOS, the Initiative for Open Citation, and various badging initiatives can help us to more readily bring disparities to light.
- Use and promote open access in training sessions
- Provide programming that lessens barriers to participation for women and minorities
- Advocate for contributorship models which recognize the diversity of knowledge production
- Approach new metrics with productive skepticism
- Encourage engagement between students and scholars
- Evaluate and contribute to the development of new tools
Reflecting the themes of Sugimato's talk, the research we conduct here, in the Program on Information Science is strongly motivated by issues of diversity and inclusion — particularly on approaches to bias-reducing systems design. Our previous work in participative mapping aimed at increasing broad public participation in electoral processes. Our current NSF-supported work in educational research focuses on using eye-tracking and other biological signals to track fine-grained learning across populations of neurologically diverse learners. And, under a recently-awarded IMLS award, we will be hosting a workshop to develop principles for supporting diversity and inclusion through information architecture in information systems. For those interested in these and other projects, we have published blog posts and reports in these areas.
Guest Post: Building Trust: A Primer on Privacy for Librarians
Margaret Purdy is a Graduate Research Intern in the Program on Information Science, researching the area of library privacy.
Building Trust: A Primer on Privacy for Librarians
Privacy Protections Build Mutual Trust Between Patrons and Librarians
Librarians have accepted privacy as a central tenet of their professional ethics and responsibilities for nearly eight decades. However, by 2017, privacy as a human right has been simultaneously strengthened and reaffirmed, defended and rebuffed, but rarely do we as librarians take the time to step away and ask why privacy truly matters and what we can do to protect it.
The American Library Association and the International Federation of Library Associations have both asserted that the patrons have the right to privacy while seeking information.1 The ALA in particular brings up the notion of privacy allowing for intellectual freedom – the ability to consume information and know they will not face repercussions such as punishment or judgments based on what they read. Librarians are in the business of disseminating information in order to stimulate knowledge growth. One major stimulus for such growth is the mutual trust between the library and the patron – trust that the patron will not use the knowledge in a destructive way, and trust that the library will not judge the patron for information interests. Ensuring patron privacy is one way for the library to prove that trust. Similarly, the IFLA2 emphasizes the right to privacy in its ethics documentation. In addition to the rights of patron privacy that the ALA ensures, the IFLA also allows for as much transparency as possible into "public bodies, private sector companies and all other institutions whose activities effect [sic] the lives of individuals and society as a whole." This is yet another way to establish trust between the library and its patrons, ultimately ensuring intellectual freedom and growth of knowledge.
Globally, internet privacy and surveillance are also matters that are currently getting much more notice and debate, and government regulations, such as the EU General Protection of Public Data (GDPR)3, are working to strengthen individuals' abilities to control their own data and ensure it does not end up being used against them. The GDPR is slated to go into effect in 2018 and will broadly protect the data privacy rights of EU citizens. It will certainly be a policy to watch, especially as a litmus for how effective major legislation can be in asserting privacy protections. Even more practically, however, is that the GDPR protects EU citizens even if the one collecting data is outside the EU. This will potentially affect many libraries across the United States and the world at large, as there is an added level of awareness required to ensure that any collaboration with or service to EU citizens is properly protected.
Libraries Face a Double-Barreled Threat from Government Surveillance and Corporate Tracking
In addition to the ALA and IFLA codes of ethics that ensure librarians work to ensure patrons' rights to privacy, multiple governmental codes deal with the right to information privacy. In the United States, the fourth amendment protects the right to remain free from searches and seizures, and has often been cited as a protection of privacy. Similarly, federal legislation such as FERPA, which protects the privacy rights of students, and HIPAA, which protects medical records have reasserted that privacy is a vital right. Essentially every US state also has some provisions about privacy, many of which directly relate to the right to privacy in library records.4
However, in recent years, many of the federal government's protections have begun to slip away. Immediately after 9/11, the USA PATRIOT Act passed, allowing the government much broader abilities to track patron library records. More recently, as digital information became easier to track, programs such as PRISM and other governmental tracking arose. Both of these government programs directly threaten the ability for library patrons to conduct research, information-seeking, and more in privacy.
Businesses have also learned ways of tracking their users' behaviors online, and using that data for practices such as targeted advertising. While the vast majority of this data is encrypted and could not be easily brought back to personally-identifiable information, it is still personal data that is not necessarily kept in the most secure way possible. And while breaches do happen, even without them, it is not out of the question for an experienced party to be able to reconstruct an individual from the data collected, and to know not only that individual's browsing history and location, but also potentially information such as health conditions, bank details, or other sensitive information.
While this information is often used for simple outreach, including Customer Relationship Marketing, where a company will recommend new products based on previous purchases, it can also be used in more invasive ways. In 2012, Target sent out a promotional mailing containing deals on baby products to a teenage girl.5 Based on their data they had tracked about her purchases, the algorithm had determined, correctly, that she was highly likely to be pregnant. While this story received extensive media attention, businesses of all types, including retailers, hotels, and even healthcare systems participate in similar practices, using data to personalize the experience. However, when stored irresponsibly, this data can lead to unintentional and unwanted sharing of information – potentially including embarrassing web browsing or shopping habits, dates that homes will be empty for thieves, medical conditions that could increase insurance rates, and more
Growing Public Concern
One of the most pressing risks to privacy protections currently is user behavior and expectations. With the information industry becoming much more digital, information is becoming easier to access, spread, and consume. However, the tradeoff is that users, and the information they view, is much easier to track, by both corporate and government entities, friendly or malicious. Plus, because much of the tracking and surrendering of privacy, including the ability to save passwords, CRM, targeted algorithms, and more, make it more convenient to browse the internet, many patrons willingly give up the right to privacy in favor of convenience.
A recent poll6 showed that between 70% and 80% of internet users are aware that practices such as saving passwords, agreeing to privacy policies and terms of use without reading them, and accepting free information in exchange for advertising or data surrendering is a risk to privacy. However, a large majority of users still participate in those practices. There are several theories as to what causes users to agree to forgo privacy, including the idea that the accepting the risks make browsing the internet much more convenient, and users are hesitant to give up that convenience. Another theory is that there really is no alternative to accepting the risks. Many sites will not allow use without acceptance of the terms of use and/or privacy policy. A 2008 study7 calculated how much time users would spend reading privacy policies were they to actually read all of them, and found that, on average, user would spend nearly two weeks a year just reading policies, not to mention the time taken to fully understand the legalese and complicated implications.
Another similar poll8 shows that more than half of Americans are concerned about privacy risks, and over 80% have taken some precautionary action. However, most of that 80% are unaware of more that they can do to protect themselves. This is true for both government surveillance and corporate tracking. The public has similar levels of awareness and concern about both, but are unaware of how to better protect themselves, and thus, are more likely to allow it to happen.
Best Practices for Librarians
Given the increasing public concern and awareness, as well as the longstanding history of librarians' focus on privacy, librarians have a perfect opportunity to intervene and re-establish the trust from users that their information will not be shared and to meet the professional ethical model of always protecting privacy. There are nearly endless resources that can outline in great detail what librarians should do to defend their patrons against attacks on privacy, whether that comes from government surveillance or corporate tracking. Some of these involve systematic evaluations of all touchpoints in the library and recommendations for implementing best practices. These exist even for areas that do not seem like obvious ways for privacy to be violated, such as anti-theft surveillance on surrounding buildings, or through third-party content vendors.
By dedicating library resources to systematically check for privacy practices, librarians can take some of the burden of inconvenience off of the individual patron. Many of these best practices involve taking the time to change computer settings, read and understand privacy policies, and negotiate with vendors, which few, if any, individuals would do on their own. With the muscle of the library working on it, though, the patrons will still benefit, without needing to dedicate the same amount of time. This serves a dual function as well, as in addition to actual steps to protect patrons, librarians can also serve as an educational resource to help patrons learn simple steps to take to protect their personal systems.
Some examples of protectionary moves are to create policies on library computers that ensure that as little information from user sessions is saved. There are several incredibly simple steps that, while they reduce the convenience slightly, ensure users a safe and private experience. This includes, settings that clear cookies, the cache, and user details after each session (also known as "incognito mode"); or the clearing of patron checkout records once the book is returned.
In addition to those tweaks, the ALA and LITA offer checklists of privacy best practices to systematically implement in libraries. These cover everything from data exchanges, OPACs and patron borrowing records, protection for children, and more in great detail. NISO also provides overarching design principles for approaching library privacy in a digital age. Additionally, there are recommended security audits, many of which Bruce Shuman mentions in his book, Library Security and Safety Handbook: Prevention, Policies, and Procedures.
Additionally, the library, already known for educational programs and community-oriented programming could serve as a location to educate the public about the real risks of tracking and surveillance. There is a definite gap between the public's awareness of the risks and the public's action to mitigate those risks. While librarians cannot force behavior, and most would not want to, offering patrons trustworthy information about the risks and how to avoid them in their personal browsing experiences helps re-establish privacy as a core value and gives patrons a reason to trust the library. This recent post from Nate Lord at Digital Guardian offers simple and more in depth steps that patrons can take to ensure their digital information is secure. If a library offered some of these in a training course or as a takeaway, it could serve as a valuable resource in narrowing the gap between patron awareness and activity.
Ultimately, privacy is often one of those words that many people give lip service to, but without fully understanding the risks and consequences, the motivation to give up convenience in order to protect privacy is not always there. However, we as librarians, who value privacy as one of the professions' core tenets have a real opportunity to help protect patrons' data against these threats. Resources, such as the aforementioned privacy checklists and audit guides, exist to help librarians ensure their library is in compliance with the current best practices. The threats against privacy are growing, and librarians are well-suited to intervene and ensure patron protection.
Recommended Resources
- 101 Data Protection Tips: https://digitalguardian.com/blog/101-data-protection-tips-how-keep-your-passwords-financial-personal-information-safe
- ALA Privacy Checklist: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/privacy/checklists
- ALA Privacy Toolkit: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/privacy/toolkit
- IFLA Statement on Privacy: https://www.ifla.org/files/assets/hq/news/documents/ifla-statement-on-privacy-in-the-library-environment.pdf
- International Privacy Law Library: https://iapp.org/resources/article/international-privacy-law-library/
- Library Security and Safety Handbook: Prevention, Policies, and Procedures: https://books.google.com/books?id=1N0iXPx5uqQC&lpg=PA111&ots=bUXo2DeMva&dq=library%20security%20audits&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false
- LITA: http://www.ala.org/lita/advocacy
- Karen Coyle: Privacy Audits
- NISO: http://www.niso.org/topics/tl/patron_privacy/
- Preparing for GDPR: https://ico.org.uk/media/1624219/preparing-for-the-gdpr-12-steps.pdf
- State Library Privacy Laws: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/privacy/statelaws
1. ALA Code of Ethics. (1939). http://www.ala.org/advocacy/sites/ala.org.advocacy/files/content/proethics/codeofethics/Code%20of%20Ethics%20of%20the%20American%20Library%20Association.pdf
2. IFLA Code of Ethics. https://www.ifla.org/publications/node/11092
3. GDPR Portal (2016). http://www.eugdpr.org/
4. Adams, H. et. al. (2005). Privacy in the 21st century. Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited.
5. Hill, K. (2012). How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did. Forbes.com. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/#1bd0d38d6668
6. Ayala, D. (2017). Security and Privacy for Libraries in 2017. Online Searcher, 41(3).
7. Cranor, L. (2008). The Cost of Reading Privacy Policies. I/S: A Journal Of Law And Policy For The Information Society.
8. Rainie, L., & Rainie, L. (2017). The state of privacy in post-Snowden America. Pew Research Center. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/21/the-state-of-privacy-in-america/
Creative Data Literacy: Commentary on Catherine D'Ignazio's Program on Information Science Talk
Catherine D'Ignazio is an Assistant Professor of Civic Media and Data Visualization at Emerson College, a principal investigator at the Engagement Lab, and a research affiliate at the MIT Media Lab/Center for Civic Media. She presented this talk, entitled, Creative Data Literacy: Bridging the Gap Between Data-Haves and Have-Nots as part of Program on Information Science Brown Bag Series.
In her talk, illustrated by the slides below, D'Ignazio points to the gap between those people that collect and use data, and those people who are the subject of data collection.
D'Ignazio abstracted her talk as follows:
Communities, governments, libraries and organizations are swimming in data—demographic data, participation data, government data, social media data—but very few understand what to do with it. Though governments and foundations are creating open data portals and corporations are creating APIs, these rarely focus on use, usability, building community or creating impact. So although there is an explosion of data, there is a significant lag in data literacy at the scale of communities and citizens. This creates a situation of data-haves and have-nots which is troubling for an open data movement that seeks to empower people with data. But there are emerging technocultural practices that combine participation, creativity, and context to connect data to everyday life. These include data journalism, citizen science, emerging forms for documenting and publishing metadata, novel public engagement in government processes, and participatory data art. This talk surveys these practices both lovingly and critically, including their aspirations and the challenges they face in creating citizens that are truly empowered with data.
In her talk, D'Ignazio makes five recommendations on how to help people learn data literacy:
- Many tutorials on data use abstract or standardized examples examining cars (or widgets) — this does not connect with most audiences. Ground your curriculum in community-centered problems and examples.
- Frequently, people encounter data "in the wild" without metadata or other context that are needed for constructing meaning with it. To address this, have learners create data biographies — which explain who and how the data was collected and used, and its purposes, impacts and limitations.
- Data is messy, and learners should not always be introduced to it through a clean, static data set but through encountering the complex process of collection.
- Design tools that are learner-centric: focused, guided, inviting, and expandable.
- People like monsters better than they like bar charts — so favor creative community-centered outputs over abstract purity.
Much more detail on these recommendation can be found in D'Ignazio's professional writings.
D'Ignazio's talk illustrated two more general tensions. One general tension is between a narrow conception of data literacy as coding, spreadsheets, statistics; and a broader conception that is not yet crisply defined but is distinct from statistical-, information-, IT-, media-, and Visual- literacies. This resonates with work done by our program's research intern Zach Lizee on Digital Literacy and Digital Citizenship in which he argues for a form of literacy that prepares learners to engage with the evolving role of information in the world, and to use that engagement to advocate policy and standards that enact their values.
D'Ignazio's talks also highlights a broad general tension that currently exists between the aspiration of open data and data journalism to empower the broader public, and the structural inequalities in our systems of data collection, sharing, analysis, and meaning-making. This tension is very much in play with respect to Libraries and Universities approaches to open access.
Much of academia, and many policy-makers have embraced the potential value of Open Access to content. The MIT libraries' vision also embraces the challenge of building an open source platform to enable global discovery and access to this content. Following the themes of D'Ignazio's talk and based on our research, I conjecture that library open platforms could be of tremendous worth — but not for the reasons one usually expects.
The worth of software, and of information and communication technology systems and platforms generally, is typically measured by how much it is used, what functions it provides, and what content/data it enables one to use. However the importance of Library participation in the development of open information platforms goes beyond this. Libraries have not distinguished themselves from the Googles, Twitters and Facebooks of the world in making open content discoverable, or in the functionality that their platforms provide to create, annotate, share, and make meaning from this content: The commercial sector has both the capacity and the incentives to do this — as it's profitable.
The worth of a library open platform is in the core library values that it enacts: broad inclusion/participation, long-term (intergenerational) persistence, transparency, and privacy. These are not values that current commercial platforms support — because the commercial sector lacks an incentives to create these. To go beyond open access to equity in participation in the creation and understanding of knowledge, libraries, museums, archives, and others that share thesevalues must lead in creating open platforms.
Reflecting the themes of D'Ignazio's talk, the research we conduct here, in the Program on Information Science, engages with the expanding scope of information literacy, and with inequalities in access to information. For those interested in these and other projects, we have published blog posts and reports in these areas.
Becoming a Practitioner Scholar in Technology for Development (And Involving students!): Commentary on Laura Hosman's Talk
Professor Laura Hosman, who is Assistant Professor at Arizona State University (with a joint appointment in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and in The Polytechnic School) gave this talk Becoming a Practitioner Scholar in Technology for Development as part of the Program on Information Science Brown Bag Series.
In her talk, illustrated by the slides below, Hosman argues that, for a large part of the world "the library of the future" will be based on cellphones, intranets, and digital-but-offline content.
Hosman abstracted her talk as follows:
Access to high-quality, relevant information is absolutely foundational for a quality education. Yet, so many schools across the developing world lack fundamental resources, like textbooks, libraries, electricity, and Internet connectivity. The SolarSPELL (Solar Powered Educational Learning Library) is designed specifically to address these infrastructural challenges, by bringing relevant, digital educational content to offline, off-grid locations. SolarSPELL is a portable, ruggedized, solar-powered digital library that broadcasts a webpage with open-access educational content over an offline WiFi hotspot, content that is curated for a particular audience in a specified locality—in this case, for schoolchildren and teachers in remote locations. It is a hands-on, iteratively developed project that has involved undergraduate students in all facets and at every stage of development. This talk will examine the design, development, and deployment of a for-the-field technology that looks simple but has a quite complex background.
In her talk, Hosman describes how the inspiration for her current line of research and practice started when she received a request to aid deployment of the One Laptop Per Child project in Haiti. The original project had allocated twenty-five million dollars to laptop purchasing, but failed to note that electric power was not available in many of the areas they needed to reach — so they asked for Professor Hosman's help in finding an alternative power source. Over the course of her work, the focus of her interventions has shifted from solar power systems, to portable computer labs, to portable libraries — and she noted that every successful approach involved evolution and iteration.
Hosman observes that for much of the world's populations electricity is a missing prerequisite to computing and to connectivity. She also notes that access to computing for most of the world comes through cell phones, not laptops. (And she recalls even finding that the inhabitants of remote islands occasionally had better cellphones than she carried.) Her talk notes that there are over seven billion cell phones in the world — which is over three times the number of computers worldwide, and many thousands of times the number of libraries.
Hosman originally titled her talk The Solar Powered Educational Learning Library – Experiential Learning And Iterative Development. The talk's new title reflects one of three core themes that ran through the talk — the importance of people. Hosman argues that technology is never by itself sufficient (there is no "magic bullet") — to improve people's lives, we need to understand and engineer for people's engagement with technology.
The SolarSPELL project has engaged with people in surprising ways. Not only is it designed around the needs of the target clients, but it has continuously involved Laura's engineering students in its design and improvement; and has further involved high-school students in construction. Under Hosman's direction, university and high school students worked together to construct a hundred SolarSPELL's using mainly parts ordered from amazon. Moreover, Peace Corps volunteers are a critical part of the project. The people in the Corps provide the grass-roots connections that spark people to initially try the SolarSPELL, and provide a persistent human connection that supports continuing engagement.
A second theme of the talk is the importance of open and curated content. Simply making a collection freely available on-line is not enough, when we want most people in the world to be able to access it. For collections to be meaningfully accessible they need to available for bulk download; they need to be usable under an open license; they need to be selected for a community of use that does not have the option of seeking more content online; and they need to contain all of the context needed for that community to understand them.
A final theme that Hosman stresses is that any individual (scholar, practitioner, actor) will never have all the skills needed to address complex problems in the complex real world — solving real world problems requires a multidisciplinary approach. SolarSPELL demonstrates this through combining expertise in electrical engineering, content curation, libraries, software development, education, and in the sociology and politics of the region. Notably, the ASU libraries have been a valuable partner in the SolarSPELL project, and have even participated in fieldwork. Much more information about this work and its impact can be found in Hosman's scholarly papers.
The MIT libraries have embraced a vision of serving a global community of scholars and learners. Hosman's work demonstrates the existence of large communities of learners that would benefit from open educational and research materials — but whose technology needs are not met by most current information platforms (even open ones). Our aim is that future platforms not only enable research and educational content to reach such communities, but also that local communities worldwide can contribute their local knowledge, perspective, and commentary to the world's library.
Surprisingly, the digital preservation research conducted at the libraries is of particular relevance to tackling these challenges. The goal of digital preservation can be thought of as communicating with the future — and in order to accomplish this, we need to be able to capture both content and context, steward it over time (managing provenance, versions, and authenticity), and prepare it to be accessed through communication systems and technologies that do not yet exist. A corollary is that properly curated content should be readily capable of being stored and delivered offline — which is currently a major challenge for access by the broader community.
Reflecting the themes of Hosman's talk, the research we conduct here, in the Program on Information Science, is fundamentally interdisciplinary: For example our research in information privacy has involved librarians, computer scientists, statisticians, legal scholars, and many others. Our Program also aims to bridge research and practice, support translational and applied research, which often requires sustained engagement with grassroots stakeholders. For example, the success of the DIY redistricting (aka. "participative GIS") efforts in which we've collaborate relied on sustained engagement with grassroots good-government organizations (such as Common Cause and League of Women Voters); students; and the media. For those interested in these and other projects, we have published reports and articles describing them.
Guest Post: Zachary Lizee on Digital Literacy and Standards
Zachary Lizee who is a Graduate Research Intern in the program on information science, reflects on his investigations into information standards, and suggests how libraries can reach beyond local instruction on digital literacy to scaleable education on to catalyze information citizenship.
21st century Libraries, Standards Education and Socially Responsible Information Seeking Behavior
Standards and standards development frame, guide, and normalize almost all areas of our lives. Standards in IT govern interoperability between a variety of devices and platforms, standardized production of various machine parts allows uniform repair and reproduction, and standardization in fields like accounting, health care, or agriculture promotes best industry practices that emphasize safety and quality control. Informational standards like OpenDocument allows storage and processing of digital information to be accessible by most types of software ensuring that the data is recoverable in the future.[1] Standards reflect the shared values, aspirations, and responsibilities we as a society project upon each other and our world.
Engineering and other innovative entrepreneurial fields need to have awareness aboutinformation standards and standards development to ensure that the results of research, design, and development in these areas have the most positive net outcome for our world at large, as illustrated by the analysis of healthcare information standards by HIMSS, a professional organization that works to affect informational standards in the healthcare IT field:
In healthcare, standards provide a common language and set of expectations that enable interoperability between systems and/or devices. Ideally, data exchange schema and standards should permit data to be shared between clinician, lab, hospital, pharmacy, and patient regardless of application or application vendor in order to improve healthcare delivery. [2]
As critical issues regarding information privacy quickly increase, standard development organizations and interested stakeholders take an active interest in creating and maintaining standards to regulate how personal data is stored, transferred, and used, which has both public interests and regulation by legal frameworks in mind.[3]
Libraries have traditionally been centers of expertise/access of information collection, curation, dissemination, and instruction. And the standards around how digital information is produced, used, governed, and transmitted are rapidly evolving with new technologies.[4] Libraries are participating in the processes of generating information standards to ensure that patrons can freely and safely access information. For instance, the National Information Standards Organization is developing informational standards to address patron privacy issues in library data management systems:
The NISO Privacy Principles, available at http://www.niso.org/topics/tl/patron_ privacy/, set forth a core set of guidelines by which libraries, systems providers and publishers can foster respect for patron privacy throughout their operations. The Preamble of the Principles notes that, 'Certain personal data are often required in order for digital systems to deliver information, particularly subscribed content.' Additionally, user activity data can provide useful insights on how to improve collections and services. However, the gathering, storage, and use of these data must respect the trust users place in libraries and their partners. There are ways to address these operational needs while also respecting the user's rights and expectations of privacy.[5]
This effort by NISO (which has librarians on the steering committee) illustrates how libraries engage in outreach and advocacy that is also in concert with the ALA's Code of Ethics, which states that libraries have the duty to protect patron's rights to privacy and confidentiality regarding information seeking behavior. Libraries and librarians have a long tradition of engaging in social responsibility for their patrons and community at large.
Although libraries are sometimes involved, most information standards are created by engineers working in corporate settings, or are considerably influenced by the development of products that become the model. Most students leave the university without understanding what standards are, how they are developed, and what potential social and political ramifications advancements in the engineering field can have on our world.[6]
There is a trend in the academic and professional communities to foster greater understanding about what standards are, why they are important, and how they relate to influencing and shaping our world.[7] Understanding the relevance of standards will be an asset that employers in the engineering fields will value and look for. Keeping informed about the most current standards can drive innovation and increase the market value of an engineer's research and design efforts.[8]
As informational hubs, libraries have a unique opportunity to participate in developing information literacy regarding standards and standards development. By infusing philosophies regarding socially responsible research and innovation, using standards instruction as a vehicle, librarians can emphasize the net positive effect of standards and ethics awareness for the individual student and the world at large.
The emergence of MOOCs creates an opportunity for librarians to reach a large audience to instruct patrons in information literacy in a variety of subjects. MOOCs can have a number of advantages when it comes to being able to inform and instruct a large number of people from a variety of geographic locations and across a range of subject areas.[9]
For example, a subject specific librarian for an engineering department at a university could participate with engineering faculty in developing a MOOC that outlines the relative issues, facts, and procedures surrounding standards and standards development to aid the engineering faculty in instructing standards education. Together, librarians and subject experts could develop education on the roles that standards and socially responsible behavior factor into the field of engineering.
Students that learn early in their career why standards are an integral element in engineering and related fields have the potential to produce influential ideas, products, and programs that undoubtedly could have positive and constructive effects for society. Engineering endeavors to design products, methodologies, and other technologies that can have a positive impact on our world. Standards education in engineering fields can produce students who have a keen understanding of social awareness about human dignity, human justice, overall human welfare, and a sense of global responsibility.
Our world has a number of challenges: poverty, oppression, political and economic strife, environmental issues, and a host of many other dilemmas socially responsible engineers and innovators could address. The impact of educating engineers and innovators about standards and socially responsible behavior can affect future corporate responsibility, ethical and humanitarian behavior, altruistic technical research and development, which in turn yields a net positive result for the individual, society, and the world.
Recommended Resources:
- Standards: Recipes for Reality, by Lawrence Busch.
- IEEE Standards University
- Northwestern University Strategic Standards Management
[1] OASIS, "OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications TC," <https://www.oasis-open.org/ committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=office>
[2] HIMSS, "Why do we need standards?," <http://www.himss.org/library/interoperability-standards/why-do-we-need-standards>
[3] Murphy, Craig N. and JoAnne Yates, The International Organization for Standardization (ISO): Global governance through voluntary consensus, London and New York: Routledge, 2009.
[4] See Opening Standards: The Global Politics of Interoperability, edited by Laura DeNardis, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2011.
[5] "NISO Releases a Set of Principles to Address Privacy of User Data in Library, Content-Provider, and Software-Supplier Systems," NISO, <http://www.niso.org/news/pr/view?item_key=678c44da628619119213955b867838b40b6a7d96>
[6] "IEEE Position Paper on the Role of Technical Standards in the Curriculum of Academic Programs in Engineering, Technology and Computing," IEEE, <https://www.ieee.org/education_careers/education/eab/position_statements.html>
[7] Northwestern Strategic Standards Management, <http://www.northwestern.edu/standards-management/>
[8] "Education about standards," ISO, <http://www.iso.org/iso/home/about/training-technical-assistance/standards-in-education.htm>
[9] "MOOC Design and Delivery: Opportunities and Challenges," Current Issues in Emerging ELearning, V.3, Issue 1,(2016) <http://scholarworks.umb.edu/ciee/?utm_source=scholarworks.umb.edu%2Fciee%2Fvol2%2Fiss1%2F6&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages>
Making Decisions in a World Awash in Data: We're going to need a different boat: Comments on Anthony Scriffignano's Talk
Dr. Anthony Scriffignano, who is SVP/Chief Data Scientist at Dun and Bradstreet, gave this talk on Making Decisions in a World Awash in Data: We're going to need a different boat
as part of the Program on Information Science Brown Bag Series.
In the talk, illustrated by the slides below, Scriffignano argues that the massive collection of 'unstructured' data enables a wide set of potential inferences about complex changing relationships. At the same time, his talk notes that it is increasingly easy to gather sufficient information to take action — while lacking enough information to form good judgement, and further understanding of the context in which data is collected and flows is essential to developing such good judgements.
Scriffignano summarizes his talk in the following abstract:
l explore some of the ways in which the massive availability of data is changing and the types of questions we must ask in the context of making business decisions. Truth be told, nearly all organizations struggle to make sense out of the mounting data already within the enterprise. At the same time, businesses, individuals, and governments continue to try to outpace one another, often in ways that are informed by newly-available data and technology, but just as often using that data and technology in alarmingly inappropriate or incomplete ways. Multiple "solutions" exist to take data that is poorly understood, promising to derive meaning that is often transient at best. A tremendous amount of "dark" innovation continues in the space of fraud and other bad behavior (e.g. cyber crime, cyber terrorism), highlighting that there are very real risks to taking a fast-follower strategy in making sense out of the ever-increasing amount of data available. Tools and technologies can be very helpful or, as Scriffignano puts it, "they can accelerate the speed with which we hit the wall." Drawing on unstructured, highly dynamic sources of data, fascinating inference can be derived if we ask the right questions (and maybe use a bit of different math!). This session will cover three main themes: The new normal (how the data around us continues to change), how are we reacting (bringing data science into the room), and the path ahead (creating a mindset in the organization that evolves). Ultimately, what we learn is governed as much by the data available as by the questions we ask. This talk, both relevant and occasionally irreverent, will explore some of the new ways data is being used to expose risk and opportunity and the skills we need to take advantage of a world awash in data.
This covers a broad scope, and Dr. Scriffignano expands extensively on these and other issue in his blog — which is well worth reading.
Dr. Scriffignano's talk raised a number of interesting provocations. The talk claims, for example that:
On data.
- No data is real-time — there are always latencies in measurement, transmission, or analysis.
- Most data is worthless — but there remains a tremendous number of useful signals in data that we don't understand.
- Eighty-five percent of data collected today is 'unstructured'. And unstructured' data is really data that has structure that we do not yet understand.
On using data.
- Unstructured data has the potential to support many unanticipated inferences. An example (which Scriffiganno calls a "data-bubble) is a set of photographs of crowd-sourced photos of recurring events — one can find photos that are taken at different times but which show the same location from the same perspective. Despite being convenient samples, they permit new longitudinal comparisons from which one could extract signals of fashion, attention, technology use, attitude, etc. — and big data collection has created qualitatively new opportunities for inference.
- When collecting and curating data we need to pay close attention to decision-elasticity — how different would our information have to be to change our optimal action? In designing a data curation strategy, one needs to weigh the opportunity costs of obtaining data and curating data, against the potential to affect decisions.
- Increasingly, big data analysis raises ethical questions. Some of these questions arise directly: what are ethical expectations on use of 'new' signals we discover that can be extracted from unstructured data? Others arise through the algorithms we choose — how they introduce biases– and how do we even understand what algorithms do, especially as use of artificial intelligence grows? Scriffigano's talk gives as an example of recent AI research in which two algorithms develop their own private encryption scheme.
This is directly relevant to the future of research, and the future of research libraries. Research will increasingly rely on evidence sources of these types — and increasing need to access, discover and curate this evidence. And our society will increasingly be shaped by this information, and how we choose to engineer and govern collection and use of this information. The private sector is pushing ahead fast in this area, and will no doubt generate many innovative data collections and algorithms. Engagement from university scholars, researchers, and librarians is vital to ensure that society understands these new creations; is able to evaluate their reliability and bias; and has durable and equitable access to them to provide accountability and to support important discoveries that are not easily monetized. For those interested in this topic, — the Program on Information Science has published reports and articles on big data inference and ethics.
The Open Access Network: Comments on Rebecca Kennison's Talk
Rebecca Kennison, who is the Principal of K|N Consultants, the co-founder of the Open Access Network; and was was the founding director of the Center for Digital Research and Scholarship, gave this talk on Come Together Right Now: An Introduction To The Open Access Network as part of the Program on Information Science Brown Bag Series.
In the talk, illustrated by the slides below, Kennison argues that current models of OA publishing based on cost-per-unit are neither scalable nor sustainable. She further argues that a sustainable model must be based on continuing regular voluntary contributions from research universities.
In her abstract, Kennison summarizes as follows:
Officially launched just over a year ago, the Open Access Network (OAN) offers a transformative, sustainable, and scalable model of open access (OA) publishing and preservation that encourages partnerships among scholarly societies, research libraries, and other partners (e.g., academic publishers, university presses, collaborative e-archives) who share a common mission to support the creation and distribution of open research and scholarship and to encourage more affordable education, which can be a direct outcome of OA publishing. Our ultimate goal is to develop a collective funding approach that is fair and open and that fully sustains the infrastructure needed to support the full life-cycle for communication of the scholarly record, including new and evolving forms of research output. Simply put, we intend to Make Knowledge Public.
Kennison's talk summarizes the argument in her 2014 paper with Lisa Norberg : A Scalable and Sustainable Approach to Open Access Publishing and Archiving for Humanities and Social Sciences. Those intrigued by these arguments may find a wealth of detail in the full paper.
Kennison argues that this form of network would offer value to three groups of stakeholders in general:
- For institutions and libraries, to advance research and scholarship, lower the cost of education, and support lifelong learning.
- For scholarly societies, university presses: ensure revenue, sustain operations, and support innovation.
- For individuals, foundations, corporations: provide wide access to research and scholarship to address societal challenges, support education, and grow the economy.
The Program on Information Science has previously written on the information economics of the commons in Information Wants Someone Else to Pay For It. Two critical questions posed by an economic analysis of the OAN are first: What is the added value to the individual contributor that they would not obtain unless they individually contribute? (Note that this is different from the group value above — since any stakeholder gets these values if the OAN exists, whether or not they contribute to it.) Second, under what conditions does the approach lead to the right amount of information being produced? For example both market-based solutions and pure-altruistic solutions to producing knowledge outputs yield something — they just don't yield anything close to the social optimum level of knowledge production and use. What reasons do we have to believe that the fee-structure of the OAN comes closer?
In addition, Kennison discussed the field of linguistics as a prototype. It is a comparatively small discipline (1000's of researchers) and the output is focused in approximately 60 journals. Notably, a number of high-profile departments recently changed their tenure and promotion policy to recognize the OA journal Glossa as the equivalent of top journal Lingua, when the former's board departed in protest.
This is a particularly interesting example because successful management of knowledge commons is often built around coherent communities. For commons management to work — as Ostrom's work shows, behavior must be reliably observable within a community, the community must be able to impose its own effective and graduated sanctions, and determine its own rules for doing so. I conjecture that particular technical and/or policy-based solutions to knowledge commons management (let's call these "knowledge infrastructure") have the potential to scale when three conditions hold: (1) the knowledge infrastructure addresses a vertical community that includes an interdependent set of producers and consumers of knowledge, (2) the approach provides substantial incentives for individuals in that vertical community to contribute while (a) providing public goods to both that community and (b) to a larger community; and (3) the approach is built upon community-specific extensions of more general-purpose infrastructure.


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The Golfer:: My loving husband of some 20 years (yes, I was a child bride!), who likes nothing better than flogging a little white ball around the green fairways (and hopefully not getting into the rough) of his local golf course.
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Class show and tell
Another double class show and tell, today's from the quilt shop…… Lois has stitched up the blocks she cut out last timeand so she started piecing the next sectionSue M had appliqued the blocks we'd chosen fabrics for last time … Continue reading
Woolly bits Sunday
On a bleak, wet and cold day (a hangover from Saturday's wintry weather), I headed up the highway to Millrose, slowing down at seemingly regular intervals for interminable road works! I eventually made it thinking I would be the last … Continue reading
Class show and tell
Double class this week, so this first lot is from the quilt shop class. Jennifer has joined the quilt shop's 2019 BOM which is the Tula Pink 100 blocks quilt, so we worked out which fabrics belonged to which blocks … Continue reading
Mid-century modern flowers
As you may remember, I'm participating in the QAL held by Cecile and Bea the theme for which is "Flowers". I put the last of the embroidery stitches on my blocks on Sunday evening (just a little late!) and here … Continue reading
It was Squealer time over the weekend and on a very, very hot day we gathered at Karen's cool, air-conditioned home and had fun! Of course there was food for afternoon tea (or lunch for those who hadn't had any!)and … Continue reading
Woolly Bits Sunday
It was our first Woolly Bits Sunday class for the year at Millrose but only two of the group were doing Woolly Bits and I can't show you what they were doing 'cause it's still under wraps! As for the … Continue reading
Class show and tell
Now for class at Sewn and Quilted…… Morning Jo has started putting her second "Carousel" together (pattern by everyday quilts)and we chose some fabrics, and she started cutting out diamonds for "Stargazey" (pattern by everyday quilts)Marilyn has these two gorgeous … Continue reading

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We have been getting many questions regarding our BSG-Pegasus Patch, and want to apologise that we have been totally sold out.
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An inner city project in Leicester city center to convert an existing office block into high quality appartments.
in conjunction with a prominent leicester architect firm. 3d surveyscan carried out a days scanning to cover the first second and third floors of the building.
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Vallejo Extra Opaques are a range of paints designed to give good coverage. they are ideal for basecoats. They mix perfectly with other Vallejo ranges as well as other manufacturers acrylic ranges
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Christian Action Appeals to Social Welfare Department
To appeal for government's reconsideration in demolishing New Horizons Building (NHB), headquarters and main service and training centre of Christian Action (CA) for over 30 years, a petition letter was handed to a Social Welfare Department representative today (24 January 2017).
The NHB and nearby area along Wang Chiu Road is included in Hong Kong government's redevelopment plan for the Kowloon East district. Currently under Planning Department's consultation, once the plan is confirmed, the area will be redeveloped for public housing and a new secondary school; consequently NHB will be demolished and CA will have to move. To the organisation, this is an undeniably critical time.
On 10 January CA handed in over 1,000 signed appeal letters and cards collected from service users, corporate clients, partners and staff, along with a petition letter, to the Kwun Tong District Council with one clear request: to retain NHB so that CA can continue providing services for the Kowloon East community. During the consultation of the development plan, many district councillors have recognised CA's 30 years of history in providing social and training services for the Kwun Tong district at the meeting, urging the government to carefully consider its decision on CA's move.
CA's Executive Director, Mrs. Cheung-Ang Siew Mei stated, "For over 30 years, CA has dedicated to fill the service gaps, under no recurrent subvention from the government, for the most vulnerable communities that are otherwise neglected by society. The demolition of NHB will cause a major disruption to our social services, where our service users will be the most affected. This may pose a further impact to the social welfare, leading to more issues such as rising unemployment in the grassroots community. With the petition today we urge the government to reconsider retaining NHB, so that we can continue to fill the service gaps for existing and new residents in Kowloon East."
NHB has been rented by CA under Short Term Tenancy (STT) as an "O" site ("Open Space" zone) for over 30 years. Since acknowledging the government's intention in 2014, CA has been communicating with government parties to find the most appropriate solution with the least disruption on social services. However, little satisfactory progress has been made except for the recent notice from Labour and Welfare Bureau to extend CA's lease at NHB from March this year until 30 June 2018.
Cheung added, "To clarify, we are not opposed to public housing development. While we fully recognise the needs in developing public housing, we urge the government to consider fulfilling social service needs within the district – especially for the incoming grassroots community that will come with the new housing development." CA believes that public housing and secondary school can be built and coexist with NHB in the same area. Along with the petition letter, the organisation submitted a few proposals of site reconfiguration for the Government and concerned parties to consider, so that even with public housing plan in progress, CA can continue its services.
As a headquarter, NHB is a pillar for the coordination of CA's 20 social service and training centres and 5 community sales outlets across Kowloon and New Territories. Opening beyond normal office hours, the services provided at NHB include Youth Employment Training Programme (YETP), after-school children care, weekend training for foreign domestic workers, community services and employment assistance for ethnic minorities, adventure and whole-person development programme, thematic trial workshop, counselling and other community services such as an information and cyber centre open to neighbours, including women and elderly from grassroots community. NHB is also a major retraining centre, providing a spectrum of courses catered for the different needs, abilities and interests of people from Kwun Tong, Wong Tai Sin, and Kowloon City districts, and to equip them to re-enter the work force. 23,000 received training since 1993, among which 45% were trained at NHB. CA also operates an outlet shop at the premise to cycle and sell usable second-hand items with an aim to give nearby residents with more choices of quality items at an affordable price, and also to offer job opportunities for the residents in Kwun Tong. Over 60,000 attendances are served at NHB per year.
Photos & captions:
|To gain support from the Kwun Tong District Social Services Committee, Executive Director Cheung-Ang Siew Mei (second-right), representative (second-left) and service users from CA handed in a petition letter to committee chairman, Mr. Cliff Tang.
|CA's Executive Director Cheung-Ang Siew Mei (right) and a CA representative (left) submitted a petition letter to Ms. Grace Chan from Kwun Tong District Social Welfare Office, Social Welfare Department, to appeal for government's reconsideration in NHB's demolition, and to allow CA's continuation of social services for the underprivileged in the Kwun Tong district.


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Christine Wilczek
Contact CHRISTINE WILCZEK and JASON BACZA, Brokers and Homer Glen Experts, at 630-755-0600 for more information on this beautiful home.
Nestled in wooded splendor on a choice lot, this classic residence exudes warmth throughout. Decorated in neutral hues and well maintained. Spacious, well designed floor plan. Chef's kitchen with ample cabinet and counter space. Comfortable family room with fireplace. Beautiful sun room/office with picturesque views. Lovely master suite with private bathroom, walk in closet and access to finished bonus room. Large bedrooms with great closet space. Enormous lower level offers space for recreation, gaming, exercise and storage. 3 car attached garage. Stunning grounds with mature trees, swimming pool and expansive deck. Conveniently located near shopping, dining, Metra, parks, schools, world renowned golf courses and expressway access. Schedule your appointment today! Wonderful buy in this price point!
Contact CHRISTINE WILCZEK or JASON BACZA-Brokers, Exclusive Listing Agents, at 630-755-0600 for your private tour today.
EXTERIOR FEATURES • Striking custom home features brick construction situated on beautiful wooded corner lot • Architectural grade shingle roof – complete tear off November 2012 • Three car side load garage features 12-foot ceiling height, epoxy flooring, attic-paneled and painted (2011) • Concrete driveway • Concrete front walkway and entrance – repaired and raised 2018 • Coach lighting • Professional, fully landscaped grounds features tiered hardscaping (2018) and beautiful tall oaks • Expansive, two-tiered wood deck cascades down to 24-foot round heated pool(2013) • Irrigation system • Invisible pet fence(2008)-currently not in use
INTERIOR FEATURES • Four spacious bedrooms • Two full bathrooms • One half bathroom • Spacious bonus room • Fully finished basement features recreation, gaming, bar and expansive storage • Six-panel interior doors throughout • Kitchen and family room blinds (2018) • M&S intercom/audio system throughout • Security system (2001) Contracted through and ADT can be renewed • Central vacuum system • Laundry chute
LOCATION SPECIFICATIONS • Located in Spring Lake Woods subdivision • Convenient to shopping, dining, entertainment • Near expressway access • Located near world renowned golf courses including Cog Hill and Ruffled Feathers
FOYER • Traditional front door entrance flanked by sidelight windows • Laminate flooring • Two guest coat closets
LIVING ROOM • Carpet flooring • Chair rail and crown molding detail
DINING ROOM • Carpet flooring • Chair rail and crown molding detail
CHEF'S KITCHEN • Laminate flooring • Upper and lower cabinetry • Corian countertop with double bowl and disposal(2009) • Hot water spigot added 2009 • Ceramic tile backsplash • Island features Jenn-Air grill; bar seating and pendant lighting • Appliance package includes: Kenmore refrigerator(2010)with through-the-door water and ice; Kenmore Elite five-burner range/oven(2015); Kenmore Elite microwave/conducts as oven (2015); GE dishwasher(2011) • Message desk • Broom closet/houses laundry chute access • Large eat-in area
EAT-IN AREA • Laminate flooring • French door with direct access to deck
FAMILY ROOM • Carpet flooring • Brick fireplace with oak mantle/chimney recently cleaned with added flu protectant spray • Wet bar with upper and lower oak cabinetry • Crown molding detail • Double french door leads to sun room
SUN ROOM • Ceramic tile flooring • Windows wrap around entire room brings in abundant natural light and displays outdoor views of towering oak trees • French doors lead into family room • French door has direct access to deck
HALF BATHROOM • Laminate flooring • Gentleman's height vanity
LAUNDRY ROOM • Laminate flooring • Upper cabinetry • Direct access to exterior • Kenmore washer(2008) and dryer(2010)/dryer flex hose replaced(January 2019) • Laundry tub
MASTER BEDROOM • Carpet flooring • Walk-in closet with custom organization • Direct access to luxury bathroom • Bonus room above features carpet flooring, vaulted ceiling with skylight and access to attic storage – perfect for additional closet or office
MASTER BATHROOM • Ceramic tile flooring • Gentleman's height double bowl vanity • Large whirlpool tub • Separate, walk-in shower with tile surround • Direct access to master bedroom
BEDROOM TWO • Carpet flooring • Reach-in closet • Direct access to bedroom three
BEDROOM THREE • Carpet flooring • Reach-in closet • Access to bedroom two
BEDROOM FOUR • Carpet flooring • Walk-in closet with organization
FULL BATHROOM • Ceramic tile flooring • Gentleman's height double bowl vanity • Tub/shower with tile surround
LOWER LEVEL – Finished 2009 Open concept for great entertainment
BAR • Carpet flooring • Custom oak bar with built-in storage • Chair rail with wainscot • Crown molding detail • Cable ready
GAME ROOM • Ceramic tile flooring • Pool table included
RECREATION ROOM • Carpet flooring
ENTERTAINMENT AREA • Carpet flooring
STORAGE/MECHANICALS • Two Carrier HVAC units – unit #1 replaced in 2006 & unit #2 replaced in 2010 – Exterior A/C units replaced in 2014 • Two April Aire whole house humidifiers (2012) • Rheem 75 gallon water heater (2017) • Two sump pumps (2017)
-storage units negotiable
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Recommended by 100%
C. Reape-Weiskittel · Married on 11/10/2018
Great day, no matter what happens.
We planned this day, outside. It was 23 degrees, and still turned out perfect. Thank you Rev. James HarySent on 11/10/2018
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Theresa · Married on 08/25/2018
Rev. James Hary did a beautiful job performing our wedding ceremony! We wanted a short and sweet christian ceremony, and that is exactly what he gave us! We will definitely recommend him to others!Sent on 09/13/2018
Vicky · Married on 02/24/2018
We researched several officiants until we decided on Rev. Hary. What made us choose him was: 1. He is a real minister, not somebody pretending with internet credentials. 2. He was very understanding as to how we wanted our ceremony and spent ample time talking with us about it. 3. His fee was on target. Our wedding was conducted with joy, professionalism, and came across with true sincerity. Rev. Hary performed a great wedding service for us and so we give our highest recommendations.Sent on 03/02/2018
julie · Married on 12/31/2017
Rev. Hary did a wonderful job with our wedding. He was willing to come to our rehearsal to practice with us. We had a large group and he coordinated everyone well. He did a beautiful job of incorporating religion into our non-church wedding. We were very pleased with his services.Sent on 01/08/2018
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Laura Herbst · Married on 10/14/2017
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Not sure if I wrote a review for Rev Hary when he married us so I will do so now.Sent on 02/02/2019
October 14th 2017 He married us at squires castle.
It was clear from the first phone call with him that this was not his first wedding...He was just what he needed.
He told us how to get the marriage licence...He answered every question we had.. He was on time and did a beautiful cermony...
I would for sure recommend him to anyone.
He will always have a special place in our heart since he made the day so special
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Blake · Married on 04/15/2017
Our wedding day was beautiful and Rev. Hary helped to make it the best day of our lives. His ceremony was moving, special and just all around enjoyable. He was an eloquent speaker and a great coach that fully prepared us. He had an amazing demeanor and a friendliness that made us feel at ease and like we had known him for years. All our guests said how much they liked the ceremony he did. Yes, HIGHLY recommend him!Sent on 04/18/2017
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Mitch · Married on 04/08/2017
Loni and I aren't overly religious, but we believe in God and didn't want an internet ordained pretender from some fairyland website. We contacted officiant after officiant and they either had an internet ordination, avoided a direct answer with saying "don't worry I'm licensed", or changed the subject by pointing to their reviews or offered to beat any price. We noticed that Rev. Hary was the only one with a photo inside or outside a church so we contacted him. We found that he was a genuine minister who had pastored a church and proved it to us. As far as how he did our rehearsal and wedding; he was great! The words he used touched us and our guests profoundly. His fee was reasonable and well worth it. If you want a real minister and a real good wedding, he's the best!Sent on 05/31/2017
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Gwen · Married on 04/01/2017
Rev. James Hary was extremely nice and easy to work with. He took the time to get to know us as a couple and how we wanted our wedding. His ceremony was personal, romantic, and flowed nicely. Highly recommend him to anyone wanting a ceremony that is not simply yada yada yada!Sent on 04/02/2017
Rev. James Hary's reply:
Terri · Married on 03/25/2017
Our ceremony was the highlight of the day and Rev. Hary was spectacular. His ceremony reflected our reasons and goals for marriage and had everyone's attention. It was a very special way to start our married life together. Rev. Hary was professional, flexible, and always kept a smile on our faces. His price was very fair and honestly a bit low for how good he is. Unlike others we had contacted that wanted an arm and a leg, it's clear he isn't driven by money.Sent on 03/30/2017
Rev. James Hary's reply:
Joe · Married on 02/18/2017
We are so happy we chose Rev. Hary! He did an incredible job with our wedding. Our guests loved him too. He was on time, friendly to all, and extremely professional. He helped us through all the stages of planning and guided us completely. It could not have turned out better. He has a calm about him that was able to quell my nervousness and that of my bride Stacey. I cannot fully express or emphasize how stress free it was to work with him. He had the ceremony memorized and was able to make eye contact with us instead of reading out of a book. We also liked the fact that he is a real minister and not someone with one of those fishy online certificates. We had met with 2 other officiants before meeting Rev. Hary. When we asked them what church they were with, one refused to answer and abruptly ordered us out. The other one had one of those online certificates from something called Universal Life Church. On a scale of 1 to 10 Rev. Hary is a 12. Amazing man!Sent on 02/20/2017
Rev. James Hary's reply:
Donna · Married on 02/15/2017
Rev. Hary is very good at what he does and how he does it. Our ceremony was traditional and yet he made it unique and personalized. He made time to meet with us and discuss all aspects of our ceremony before we hired him. He also fit the time for this meeting to our schedule, not his. He was very helpful in getting our rehearsal done so that it made things easy for everyone. The manager at our venue was also impressed by how well he did our rehearsal and wedding. She said that most of the officiants she has seen fumble and stumble like it's their first time. Rev. Hary also has a fun side to him. He is a joyful person and has a great sense of humor. We truly feel we had the best officiant anyone could ask for and recommend him to anyone 100%.Sent on 02/16/2017
Rev. James Hary's reply:
Wanda · Married on 05/15/2016
Rev. Hary was helpful and supportive with making sure the ceremony went off without a hitch. He knew exactly how to keep us calm in front of everyone and I would highly recommend him to anyone planning to get married.Sent on 05/18/2016
Hannah · Married on 10/18/2015
Rev. Hary's ceremony was a true blessing and reflected our love to one another with just the right amount of focus on what marriage is about and he helped us to personalize our vows which made it all the more special. Rev. Hary was thoughtful, considerate, and flexible throughout the whole process. He was worth much more than what he charged. So glad we found him!Sent on 10/23/2015
Kelli · Married on 09/26/2015
I am so glad I trusted Rev. Hary to be the officiant of my wedding. He is truly a gem! On time, organized, and was just overall great.Sent on 10/01/2015
Kim · Married on 09/19/2015
Officiant Rev. James Hary was wonderful, helpful, and attentive to quickly responding to questions leading up to the wedding. I could not have asked for a smoother, more pleasant person to have done my wedding and his ceremony was fantastic.Sent on 09/22/2015
Tara · Married on 09/12/2015
Rev. Hary seems to truly understand how brides and grooms feel at this important and special time. The way he did our ceremony showed his care in making our wedding day great. We are middle-aged, but I could see how he could identify and connect with any one of any marital age. Very flexible and easy going! We received glowing feedback from our guests and so we give our complete 5 star recommendation of him.Sent on 09/18/2015
Jaqueline · Married on 09/05/2015
Rev. Hary was extremely responsive to all of our e-mails and phone calls and our wedding was so thrilling in a large part due to him and his ceremony. So glad we were able to book him!Sent on 09/10/2015
Gail · Married on 08/28/2015
Rev. Hary was professional, sweet, and smoothly helped us through the planning process. EVERYONE raved about how good his ceremony was. Our thanks to him for making our day so memorable!Sent on 08/30/2015
Jesse · Married on 08/23/2015
Everything was perfect with Rev. Hary. We were a bit nervous with the idea of finding an officiant online, but with what we read about him in reviews and seeing that unlike the other officiants, he pastored an actual church, we hired him. He was awesome and no disappointments at all.Sent on 08/28/2015
Lucy · Married on 08/21/2015
He was enjoyable to be around and he exceeded our expectations. From the first time we talked to him we knew he was right for us. We are so happy we had him marry us!Sent on 08/22/2015
Clarissa · Married on 08/16/2015
Rev. Hary guided us through our options and gave us plenty of suggestions as "food for thought" as we put our wedding together. He made it so easy for us and yet so meaningful. Our ceremony went smoothly and all of our guests expressed that they enjoyed it immensely. We had at least 4 people tell us that if they got married again, they would want Rev. Hary to do their wedding! Based on the excellent service I received, I would recommend him to anyone who is looking for a wedding officiant.Sent on 08/18/2015
Randy · Married on 08/14/2015
He did a spectacular job at our wedding and had a great personality and sense of humor. Very organized and easy to communicate with. No surprise he was highly recommended by our venue. Thanks again Rev. Hary, you made our day!Sent on 08/15/2015
Kristi · Married on 08/01/2015
Rev. Hary did so much more than just marry us. Neither of us had been married before, so we were pretty much clueless from how and where to get the marriage license and all of the other things that go into planning a wedding. Right from when we first spoke with Rev. Hary we could see that he was someone with alot of experience, enthusiasm, and loved to marry people. He was patient with us and explained everything to us in a way we could easily understand. He definitely eased our worries. He was great at the rehearsal and his instructions were clear, concise, and made all of us feel much more confident. This made doing the actual wedding so much more stress free and jitter free. With his added sense of humor it was truly a wonderful event in our lives and a day we will cherish forever. He was also very "budget friendly" in terms of his fee. We had gotten some quotes from other officiants ranging from an arm and a leg, to cheap but did not seem to have the expertise of Rev. Hary. We didn't want to be penny wise and dollar foolish and end up with amateur hour! After the wedding we were given nothing but praises by our guests about the ceremony and so from our experience we fully recommend Rev. Hary.Sent on 08/02/2015
Brian · Married on 07/26/2015
We were pleased and happy with Rev. Hary's ceremony that he did for us. A really good guy!Sent on 08/01/2015
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Vol 9: Why Do Female Callosobruchus maculatus Kick Their Mates
Vol 9: Why Do Female Callosobruchus maculatus Kick Their Mates - Download this document for free, or read online. Document in PDF available to download.
Download or read this book online for free in PDF: Vol 9: Why Do Female Callosobruchus maculatus Kick Their Mates
This article is from PLoS ONE, volume 9.AbstractSexual conflict is now recognised as an important driver of sexual trait evolution. However, due to their variable outcomes and effects on other fitness components, the detection of sexual conflicts on individual traits can be complicated. This difficulty is exemplified in the beetle Callosobruchus maculatus, where longer matings increase the size of nutritious ejaculates but simultaneously reduce female future receptivity. While previous studies show that females gain direct benefits from extended mating duration, females show conspicuous copulatory kicking behaviour, apparently to dislodge mating males prematurely. We explore the potential for sexual conflict by comparing several fitness components and remating propensity in pairs of full sibling females where each female mated with a male from an unrelated pair of full sibling males. For one female, matings were terminated at the onset of kicking, whereas the other's matings remained uninterrupted. While fecundity number of eggs was similar between treatments, uninterrupted matings enhanced adult offspring numbers and fractionally also longevity. However, females whose matings were interrupted at the onset of kicking exhibited an increased propensity to remate. Since polyandry can benefit female fitness in this species, we argue that kicking, rather than being maladaptive, may indicate that females prefer remating over increased ejaculate size. It may thus be difficult to assess the presence of sexual conflict over contested traits such as mating duration when females face a trade off between direct benefits gained from one mating and indirect benefits from additional matings.
Author: van Lieshout, Emile; McNamara, Kathryn B.; Simmons, Leigh W.
Source: https://archive.org/


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AT&T Still Reviewing Connecticut Court Decision
An AT&T spokesman says that the company is reviewing a recent Connecticut court decision that it is a cable service subject to cable franchise rules, but that it will continue to operate and expand its IPTV-based video service in the state.
The Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC) had ruled that AT&T's service was an information service and not subject to the same franchise requirements as traditional cable services.
AT&T spokesman Michael Balmoris points out that the DPUC decision was based on Connecticut law that has since been changed--with the passage of a state franchise reform bill that helps telcos like AT&T roll out video service.
While the company's lawyers are still going over the decision, Balmoris says, AT&T continues to offer its U-Verse service to over 20 cities and towns in the state, and "looks forward to expanding its service in the months to come."


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Good dental health is essential for overall health and well-being. At CRVC we provide comprehensive dental care for dogs and cats. A regular dental exam is one of the most important things you can do to improve quality and the longevity of your pet's life. Without exams and regular care, cats and dogs can develop periodontal disease by the age of three. Routine dental exams and teeth cleaning can be combined with your pet's annual exam. Thorough teeth cleaning involves more than just scraping tartar off the teeth. While under anesthesia, your pet will receive a comprehensive oral health assessment and treatment (COHAT).
Your pet's exam has revealed that he/she is in need of a professional dental cleaning. Periodontal disease is the most common infectious disease in cats and dogs. Addressing periodontal disease early can prevent the spread of infection through the bloodstream, affecting major organs such as the liver, kidney and heart, and can extend your pet's life up to two years.
Getting your pet ready for a thorough oral evaluation and dental cleaning, aka "COHAT" will have a few steps. Pets seven years or older will require blood work before their dental. This can be done several days before the dental day at a lesser price when sent to an outside laboratory, or we can do it the morning of the dental in-house.
The evening prior to the dental, we ask that they do not eat after 9:00pm, but water is ok overnight.
Drop off for dental is between 7:30 and 8:30 am. At this time, a technician will sign your pet into the clinic and they will stay with us for the day.
Prior to anesthesia:
- Whenever anesthesia is needed, a thorough pre-op examination is performed to ensure the patient is healthy enough for anesthesia. We may run blood work, urinalysis, X-Rays, pr EKG tests to check for any risk factors.Once this is done the patient is placed in a cage or run with a blanket.
Time for anesthesia:
- An IV catheter is placed
- Patient will receive pre-meds before general anesthesia
- Anesthesia will be administered
- Monitors are placed to monitor heart and lungs - throughout the procedure, we monitor the patients vital signs such as heart rate, respirations, blood pressure, and body temperature.
- IV fluids are started to maintain bodily functions and blood pressure
- Pictures are taken of your pet's teeth prior to cleaning
The Dental:
- Pet is moved into the dental room
- Monitors are again placed
- IV Fluids continue
- They are placed on a heating pad to maintain core body temperature.
- The doctor does a full oral exam and completes a chart of all oral disease
- Dental X-Rays may be needed - these are sometimes needed to evaluate the teeth more. We use the latest technology, digital dental x-rays to better diagnose. Digiital radiology allows us to obtain accurate images of problematic teeth so that we can determine the course of action for your pet. Digital radiology achieves this by: finding tooth root fragments not visible during an oral exam, evaluating the vitality of the tooth, allowing for proper orientation prior to extractions, and evaluating other tooth defects. This expansion of our digital radiography provides the highest quality dental films to evaluate your pet.
- If extractions are needed, the doctor will do them at this time
- Teeth are cleaned with an ultrasonic scaler to remove bulk tartar
- A curette is then used to get remaining small tartar and clean under the gum line
- Teeth are then polished to smooth out surfaces and remove small enamel defects
- After the dental cleaning/treatment is complete, pictures are taken of your pets teeth to complete the chart
- Temperature is checked at this time.
- Area is injected with a local anesthetic block that will last 6-8 hours
- Tooth is removed surgically
- Socket is sutured with absorbable sutures
Recovery and Aftercare:
- Patient is placed back in a cage on a heating pad if needed
- You are notified of your pet's dental completion and told when to pick up
- Patient temperature is evaluated every thirty minutes and pet is monitored closely until fully awake
- Additional pain management is given if needed
After examining an awake pet, we provide you with an estimate. We do our very best to adhere to this estimate, but keep in mind we sometimes find additional care is needed during the anesthetized oral exam that was not visible in the awake pet. If you have any questions or would like to schedule your pet's dental cleaning, please call us at 253-2402. We look forward to improving your pet's health very soon!


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The Adamawa sector Command of Federal Road Safety Corps has confirmed that 15 persons lost their lives on Sunday when a truck conveying cows and passengers lost control on a bridge and fell into the drying river.
The Adamawa Sector Commander of FRSC) Mr. Adetunji said that the accident occurred at about 10p.m. on the Ngurore Bridge on Yola-Numan Road.
He said that before the arrival of FRSC personnel at the scene, the victims had been evacuated to the Federal Medical Centre, Yola, and Specialists Hospital, Yola.
Adetunji said that the numbers of injured persons had yet to be ascertained.
"I received a call at about 22:00hours on Sunday that there was a crash on Ngurore Bridge on Yola-Numan Highway.
"On arrival at the scene, we discovered that it was a truck carrying cows and passengers that lost control and fell into the drying river," the commander told NAN.
According to him, six dead bodies were deposited at the Federal Medical Centre and nine at the Specialists Hospital.
He advised motorists to shun night driving as well as avoid transporting human beings and animals in the same vehicle.


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It's quick!
It's easy!
It will help you make MUCH more money! 🙂
If you are a Sales Manager/Owner/Boss, please read your training here!
Sales Agents Training
I. Setting up 59sec (Duration: 3 minutes!)
Step 1. Install the 59sec iPhone/Android App to get notifications on your mobile phone. (Duration: 1 minute)
Step 2. Insert your Secret Key into the mobile app, given to you by your sales manager. (Duration: 1 minute)
This is where you insert the Secret Key:
This is how a real Secret Key looks like:
Because is alpha-numeric and long and complicated, maybe is a good idea to copy-paste it, in order to avoid typos. If the key is entered correct, you will get a green success message, announcing you that your app is now connected with your site.
Step 3 (only for iOS users). (Duration: 1 minute)
Go to iPhone Settings tab (NOT the 59sec Settings). There, search for Notifications category, and then search for 59sec app. You should change the default Banner alert style to Alerts. See below.
Here is also a video explaining the above steps:
II. Usage Training (Duration: 2 minutes)
Step 1. When a new lead will be generated, you will be notified almost instantly through sound (a cash register jingle), vibration and a push notification.
Step 2. As soon as you can, open the 59sec mobile app and click "LEADS" tab. Also, if you are in the front of a computer, you can login in the 59sec back-end and click LEADS from there…
Step 3. In a few seconds, the LEADS tab will display all unanswered leads in real time, oldest one first. You will see the details of the lead. Click ASAP the green "Grab" button.
The lead will disappear from the "Unanswered leads" from your fellows sales managers (to avoid duplication). Also the counter will stop (number of seconds since lead generation and lead grabbing will remain fixed)
Step 4. Once you see that the lead is yours, call the client IMMEDIATELY. Even if it takes 1 week to make him the offer, you must call the potential client right away, to impress him and to demonstrate that you are on top of things. Do your magic on the phone and try to push for the sale!
Step 6. After the call is done, your lead is colored in red and it resides in 59sec CRM tab. Here you can write a status, assign a tag, nurture the lead forward.
Step 7. From time to time, is good to go to the "Statistics" tab, either from phone, tablet or from computer. You can compare with the other fellows sales agents/respondents.
Remember: The quicker you answer, the best results you'll get! It's a fact!
That's it! Good luck! Now go to work 🙂


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35 Weeks - We Made It!!!
We made it past the final milestone on Tuesday!!!
I was so excited! The whole past week has been a little stressful just knowing that I needed to be good so that the boys don't make their entrance into the world too soon. Now, we can just sit and wait for the boys to decide to show their cute little faces :).
I had another doctor's appointment on Wednesday. Everything was about the same, except that I am swelling a little bit more and my blood pressure is rising a little, but still in the normal range. The doctor said that he was not surprised at all because that is typical with twin pregnancies. So we will just watch it - and I am to continue to rest. We also did a non-stress test, which monitors the babies's heart rate, movements, and my contractions. Everything was as it needed to be.
I think I have gotten a little bigger over the past week, so I am posting another picture just to keep you updated. It is definitely getting more and more uncomfortable carrying the boys, but I know it shouldn't be too long now before we get to meet them. Their daddy has been ready for quite some time - he asks everyday if we can just go to the hospital :). I have been a little less ready because I don't feel prepared, but I have now reached the point that we have the essentials ready and anything else is just extra. So we are both VERY ready to meet our boys! Hopefully soon, we can post some pictures of them :).


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How can we improve the quality of our service?
DSB – Service – 2015
Consistently good service
DSB strives to deliver a good and consistent service to their customers, every single time – regardless of whether the customer encounters an employee at the train station, in the 7-Eleven kiosk, or at the service centre. DSB wanted to develop a service training tool to increase the quality of their service while maintaining a common understanding of and a shared responsibility for good customer service. To succeed, there was a need to focus on service quality standards and on the behaviour of the individual; because good conduct influences everyone's mood – colleagues as well as customers.
Blended learning
In collaboration with DSB, MOCH has developed an e-learning course designed to be taken alongside a 2-hour training session in order to combine classroom teaching with the e-learning experience. MOCH has made a point of relating the e-learning course topics and scenarios closely to the employees' daily duties, as experience shows that scenario-based e-learning makes it easier for employees to relate the new knowledge to their work.
The best service-minded way
The quality of the customer service and customer satisfaction has the potential to make or break the business. With the course, the staff improves their skills and acquire new ones. They are now equipped with the skills to act in the best service-minded way in accordance with DSB's standards and can boost the customer loyalty.


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Technology Management
Submit an Idea
If you have an idea you'd like to submit, please click the following link for access to our intellectual property management system, Wellspring Sophia®. Just use your UH username and password to log-in. Once logged in, please click on the "New Disclosure" option on the right-hand side and fill out the questionnaire: Submit an Idea
Once you submit your idea, the Office of Technology Management will automatically be notified and will contact you.
Questions? Feel free to contact the Office of Technology Management at: 216-844-1415 or send an email to: firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Magazine clippings I used to cut out of newspapers and the music press back in my youth.
If you want to leave any feedback about my website
or this blog just go to
The Guestbook Post
For Madmen Only
A bit of promotional material for UK Decay's First LP For Madmen Only.
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Our annual Winter Party and Talent Show will be held at the Fine Arts building on the Fairground, starting with a potluck dinner and time to socialize from 5:30 to 6:15. After 6:15, the eating area will be closed, and we'll sit down and watch the performances. Talent show performers may be students and/or members of their family, and auditions will be held earlier in December to coach and advise for the best performances possible. Afterwards, each class will give a performance, staff will give a performance, and the ending will be a grand finale by the whole school. Help with setting up and cleaning up afterwards would be GREATLY appreciated by staff.
Suggested potluck categories by first initial of child's last name:
A-K Main dish
L-R Sides and salads
S-Z Desserts
Please be eco-conscious and bring reusable bowls, cups, and eating utensils from home.