• Linked Data – The Story So Far

  http://tomheath.com/papers/bizer-heath-berners-lee-ijswis-linked-data.pdf

• How to Publish Linked Data on the Web

  http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bizer/pub/LinkedDataTutorial/

• Linked Data

  http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html

• Scientific Data Management

  http://personal.cscs.ch/~mvalle/sdm/scientific-data-management.html

• Managing and Sharing Data

  http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/media/2894/managingsharing.pdf

• Faceted Wikipedia Search

  http://dbpedia.neofonie.de/browse

• Getting Started with Processing by Casey Reas, Ben Fry
• Metadata by Marcia Lei Zeng and Jian Qin

Apparently this has been around for a bit. I just heard about it yesterday. Awesome.

The Bicycle City. Trailer from Greg Sucharew on Vimeo.

What happens to an impoverished developing nation town when you flood it with 20,000 bicycles? You lift three times that number of people out of poverty. Pedals for Progress and founder David Schweidenback have been shipping used American bicycles to Rivas, Nicaragua for the last two decades and the transformation has been incredible.

Help Fund Our Film:
http://www.indiegogo.com/The-Bicycle-City-Film

http://thebicyclecityfilm.com/

VIEW THE FULL REPORT HERE

Like many others, I have concerns about how the forces around (and inside) me affect my performance in various events as well as my day to day well?being. To date, I have kept track of my well?being using a rating system which I have developed, a grocery list, and my memory. There are effective elements of this system and elements that do not carry enough data or create enough influence to be effective.

Although the system has highlights (the rating system) the other elements fail and the system needs complementary components to capture more data and turn that data into a useful information system. The present system is essentially a failure and has been long in need of an intervention.

I took the opportunity of this field study to do a comprehensive analysis, restructuring, and reinvention of the information system. I initially had concerns that a week wouldn’t be long enough to properly test and make appropriate refinements to the system, but after only two days I experienced significant and startling results. Given that my observations and reactions were so marked, I stayed with the study and tested it until the morning of Tuesday, March 29, 2011, at which time I began to compile all my notes, inputs and observations to create this report.

VIEW THE FULL REPORT HERE

So I wasn’t sure what to expect in response to my curiosities about the new Connective Corridor plan taking place around the Syracuse University campus, and what I got was pretty cool and a heavy dose of awesome!

The City of Syracuse, namely Stephen (City Arborist) and Owen (Deputy Director, Bureau of Planning & Sustainability) basically gang tackled my questions going way above and beyond the call of duty and making me a very happy – and well informed – camper. A big thanks goes out to those gentlemen and also to Robbi Farschman, Director of the Connective Corridor project, for getting the ball rolling.

In addition to the interview questions we also shared a few emails and phone calls. This project is in very good hands and I’m glad I’ll still be here to see its completion.

Please read on for the answers to the interview questions:

1. Is there a map of where all the trees being cut down are?

No

1. What types (species) of trees will be cut down?

Honey locust, London plan, Crab apple, Littleleaf linden and Caller pear

1. When were these trees originally planted?

They were planted at varied times throughout the late 70s. They’re all between 30-40 years old.

1. Are there any plans for use of the cut down trees?

No.  There are untapped opportunities to utilize urban wood but one of the main barriers is the pieces of metal that get hammered into the first 10-20 feet over the years.  Millers don’t want to risk breaking their saws.  That said Zeke Leonard, a professor in SUs VPA program, is working with Greg Michels at Jubilee Homes and Jessi Lyons at Cornell Cooperative Extension to make use of some trees taken down at an urban farm off of Bellevue.  Zeke is working with a miller down in Jamesville and at SUs workshop to make some tables.

1. When will the new trees be planted?

Construction is supposed to begin this year.  Trees are typically (preferably) planted at the end of the construction process.  So it depends on how well construction goes.  The first step, obviously, is to remove the existing trees by the end of March. After that we have to wait until several phases of construction (tearing up and regarding and paving the road) are complete before we can plant the new trees. The overall plan is to be substantially complete by the end of this year. When the construction has been completed to a point where we can plant the trees, we need to have the weather cooperate. If it’s too cold we just can’t plant the trees. Ideally we’ll have them all planted by the end of this year but if, due to cold or construction setbacks, we can’t plant them this year, the absolute latest they’ll be planted would be May of 2012.

1. How big will the newly planted trees be?

I believe 2.5 to 3″ caliper (that is the diameter of tree 6″ off the ground).  They will be about 12 to 16′ tall.

1. What types (species) of trees will be planted?

The new trees to be planted will include Goldenrain, English Oak, Black Locust, Coffee Tree, Ginko, and Serviceberry.

1. Is there a map of where the new trees will go?

There is but it can’t be released as it hasn’t been released for contractors to bid on. Once the City awards the bids, all the plans will be available for public review. This will likely be late May for University Avenue and late June or early July for East Genesee Street. (Syracuse City Hall: 233 East Washington Street Syracuse, NY 13202 (315) 448-8005)

1. Whose responsibility will it be to care for the new trees?

The city has full responsibility for those trees that are to be cut down and the upkeep of the newly planted trees. There may be some kickoff-type events where community organizations will be participate, but those are strictly ceremonial purposes.

The tree maintenance strategy is entirely the city’s responsibility. Around Forman Park there will be some community influence, but in the greater scope of things, the trees are the city’s responsibility.

1. When will this project be finished?

Early 2012 spring at the latest. We’re aiming for a fully operable complete project by the end of this 2011. The tree planting is the last thing done and the temperature has to be fairly warm to plant.

Last living US World War I veteran dies in West Virginia at age 110

Wow. Frank Buckles – thanks for your sacrifice and RIP. Amazing.

eScience Fellows Program

I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to post this but when I’m not schooling, I’m working.

I support Dr. Jian Qin, who’s the Principal Investigator of the IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services) funded initiative to build institutional capacity in eScience Librarianship.

I’m primarily responsible for the website design and love the project overall. It’s pretty pioneering stuff and it’s always nice to be at the forefront of development.

Learn more!

Connective Corridor Lumber-jacking

Tree love is a hereditary trait in my family or, at least, it was nurtured in me. As living beings, it actually might be a part of everyone’s DNA. At any rate, I have pretty vivid memories of my parents getting angry when they heard of some development going up at the sake of acre of timber. They also weren’t too pleased when they saw some homeowner unjustifiably chopping down a tree.

That thinking stuck with me, and made me stop and look and ponder the sign to the left.

I always question these types of signs. They strike that all important emotional chord in us (heck, a soon to be executed tree apparently wrote the language on the sign) with promises of a better tomorrow. They also seem to be too good to be true, misguided and inaccurate. This is a marketing program on some level and I am suspect of it.

I wanted to do a little more digging.

Find out the details.

Paint a clearer picture of what’s really going on.

Good thing there’s an email address to contact someone about all the questions swirling around upstairs.

In coming up with the list of questions, I erred at first. I made it too personal, as if the person reading the email was directly responsible for the project and tree execution. They were laden with  ‘Do you…’ and ‘What will you…’ clauses and sounded a little too adversarial so I rewrote them in a more neutral manner. I also rewrote negative questions like ‘Are there any plans for use of the cut down trees or will they just be brought to the city dump?’ to read: ‘Are there any plans for use of the cut down trees?’. I just want some answers and tried to be skillful in acquiring them.

My final list of questions looked like this:

1. Is there a map of where all the trees being cut down are?
2. What types (species) of trees will be cut down?
3. When were these trees originally planted?
4. Are there any plans for use of the cut down trees?
5. When will the new trees be planted?
6. How big will the newly planted trees be?
7. What types (species) of trees will be planted?
8. Is there a map of where the new trees will go?
9. Whose responsibility will it be to care for the new trees?
10. When will this project be finished?

The email was sent off and we’ll see where it goes. This entry/post really grew so after some thought and high-level approval, I reworked the piece and will be posting part two next week (if not before).

In completely unrelated news, I think the City of Syracuse logo needs some updating (top left of sign).

The bad news was here but now there is some VERY good news. It looks like Xmarks will be saved. This is great and if you haven’t checked out the best Firefox plugin, you should.