@franklinsayre
Makerspace Librarian & Department Chair at TRU. Focused on hands-on learning, belonging & community. Always up for conversations about learning through doing, critical making, and why your first project should be a gift. franklinsayre.com
A patchwork quilted jacket made out of blue, green, and purple fabrics
Someone very proudly, but also sleepily, wearing the patchwork data jacket they just finished sewing
I still need to build the companion website, but I finished the data jacket!!
The circle on the cuff is an NFC tag that will direct folks to a website that helps explain the visualizations.
#DHmakes
SFU Contract workers said for years they face bullying and harassment at work.
Requests I made under BC's FOI Act turned up WorkSafeBC records showed they tried to go through the right channels. They told their union. They told SFU. They told media.
Nothing changed.
thetyee.ca/News/2026/02...
The ACRL 2027 Call for Proposals in now open! We welcome you to share your academic research and innovative projects April 7-10, 2027, in Portland, Oregon, and online. Contributed paper, panel session, and workshop proposals are due on June 6. https://bit.ly/3OOtC5y #ACRL2027
[whispers: the steam clock is a lie]
In light of Sim saying that he said Orr dealt drugs based on seeing a mystery photo from a mystery person, I think it’s important to reflag this.
If this is an uncharitable interpretation, the mayor is free to provide more details of how he ended up seeing such a photo and believing it.
OpenAI posted the terms of the deal. Reveals that it absolutely does allow for domestic surveillance. EO 12333 is how the NSA hides its domestic surveillance by capturing communications by tapping into lines *outside the US* even if it contains info from/on US persons.
openai.com/index/our-ag...
a little
Imagine being a loaf of sourdough and poisoning your own starter because you think croutons are the future
The abject nihilism of tenured faculty not bringing on new PhD students because they think AI is better
If I’ve learned one thing from the last two decades it’s that we can trust tech companies to regulate themselves
A thought I had while reading this: many people seem much less threatened by GenAI making things like code than making things like language? Which seems weird and possibly related to a bunch of bias ppl have about making (& the meaning baked into making/code)
www.techpolicy.press/stochastic-f...
What does it mean to make something… and who is the work for?
newsletter.bijanstephen.blog/what-does-it...
a screenshot of a long winding brutalist staircase. there is a poem written on the wall. light comes through the windows. paint splats are on the stairs.
a screenshot of a tree that looks like a human bowing. the tree is large and covered in dandelion whisps. there is a poem at the base of the screen.
a screenshot looking up at old brutalist buildings. the buildings are abandoned.
a screenshot of a desert filled with dead trees. the dead trees almost look human. there is a poem at the base of the screen.
🌼My new game is here!🥀
"She danced in the wind like a holographic dream before the world died."
alienmelon.itch.io/flower
A game poem and interactive fiction about The End.
You play the very last flower left on Earth, bringing peace to long dead soil.
#IndieGame #VideoGame #GamePoem #Game
The really great parts of working in a university are the moments of real reciprocal connection with students who are exploring their unique perspectives & interests & GenAI won’t change those much. OTOH it seems likely to make the mediocre and painful parts of working in a university much worse.
This this this! Students act very rationally within systems designed to extract value from them in exchange for promises of future wealth and if that no longer holds true we’re going to have to find entirely new models and it’s likely to be less lucrative for everyone (but maybe more fun!)
Truly uncanny to see universities all doing the same suicidal things: centralizing decision-making, erecting bafflingly expensive new buildings, stacking the board with money guys, hiding info about the budget, throwing money at consultants. Atriums everywhere! They all got the same memo.
😬
I am probably 20 months into a 6-month sabbatical (let’s say I started 12 months before and it’s been over for 2 months) and I flip between feeling exhilarated and insane.
@danielcberman.com hi! What’s bringing you to Kamloops? Are you coming to TRU?
A lesson about networks that I’m kind of proud of: at the beginning of the year, I gave my 200 students a dumb survey: fav books, foods, etc. I told them they could use pseudonyms and that I’d share their responses with the class. We’ve been using that data in various ways: to make points about +
The future of academic publishing is standing on milk crates yelling
While looking up some other Latin entomology I learned that the Latin root for citation is citare which means “to summon, call forth, stir into motion” which can also be used for evacuating one’s bowels
it's extremely toxic of a conference not to automatically extend the deadline for proposals. speed limit rules apply here: 10 above IS the speed limit and 1 week after the deadline IS the deadline.
information literacy is 💫✨ world-building 💫✨
gotten to the point in the research process where I think I just need to write speculative fiction
In 2018 Buckland noted that documents would continue to increase due to the collaboration required by increasing division of labor, new technologies, and ppl documenting ordinary life. I have to wonder if this will still hold true in the age of generative AI and instant disposable synthetic media?
"Is there a technology the left is excited about?"
Let's see, off the top of my head:
- libraries
- solar power
- community-owned, community-run [noun], for example
• power grids
• communications networks
- e-bikes
- voting by mail
- vaccinations
- affordable health care
Notice any patterns?
University administration has been so busy convincing people over the years that “shared governance“ equals information sharing. It doesn’t! It means shared decision making.