iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

George Macgregor

@g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy

42 followers 5 following 325 posts

I'll tend to toot about #repositories, #openscience, structured #data, resource discovery, #inforetrieval -- but may occasionally toot #jazz vibes too. #Wikipedian […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ code4lib.social/@g3om4c, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

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George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2026

In a change to our usual schedule, please note that the #Strathclyde University Big Band (SUBB) will be performing at The #Bungalow in #Paisley on Sunday 04 October 2026, 14:00. Entry is FREE!!! The SUBB is one of the oldest university #jazz big bands in the […] [Original post on code4lib.social]

Image of poster: Strathclyde University Big Band, featuring vocalist Janine Capaldi. Sunday 04 October 2026 at The Bungalow, 15 Shuttle Street, Paisley, PA1 1YD. Doors open at 1pm; content begins at 2pm. FREE ENTRY.

George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026

This incident brings new meaning to the word "outrageous". And the reaction of #OpenAI brings new meaning to the word "disgraceful". And where is the US government in all of this -- head in the sand?! www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cwe8ekyzd… #AI #hack #Medicare #Australia #cybercrime

What you need to know about the OpenAI Australian government hack

The BBC’s North America technology correspondent Lily Jamali explains how the Medicare breach happened, and why it matters.

George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

Publication titles that do not support -- or have never supported -- protocols like RSS or Atom: What's that about?! #RSS #Atom #OpenAccess #scholcomm #syndication #publishing

George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2026

#RLUK have a super programme of Digital Shift Forum webinars lined up for autumn 2026. Oh, and what's this I see -- my colleague and I are on the programme?! 😀 In the webinar we will review the prospects of #repository survival and the consequences for the scholarly record when #repositories […]

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George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2026

In a change to our usual schedule, please note that the #Strathclyde University Big Band (SUBB) will be performing at The #Bungalow in #Paisley on Sunday 04 October 2026, 14:00. Entry is FREE!!! The SUBB is one of the oldest university #jazz big bands in the […] [Original post on code4lib.social]

Image of poster: Strathclyde University Big Band, featuring vocalist Janine Capaldi. Sunday 04 October 2026 at The Bungalow, 15 Shuttle Street, Paisley, PA1 1YD. Doors open at 1pm; content begins at 2pm. FREE ENTRY.

Reposted by George Macgregor

Digital Preservation Coalition @dpc-chat.digipres.club.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2026

What can digital repositories do to prepare for disruption before it happens? Our latest Technology Watch publication, Digital Disaster Risk Management for Repositories and Archives, explores risks including climate change, electrical outages, infrastructure […] [Original post on digipres.club]

George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2026

A really lovely blog post today from #Wonkhe about the changes happening in #UK #highereducation and the importance of belonging. "In some respects, what we are seeing resembles a form of collective grief. Not only grief for colleagues who have left, but grief for ways of working, professional […]

code4lib.social

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George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/09/2026

RE: mastodon.scot/@chrysalis/1172455205… As a university employee at a #Scottish institution, I have observed a huge uptick in job applications from #US candidates -- and observe a big increase in their workforce representation. And I suppose it is in line with a Scientific […]

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Reposted by George Macgregor

Konrad Hinsen @khinsen.scholar.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/09/2026

Want to learn good practices for reproducible research? There's a MOOC for that! First level, for anyone doing research using computers: www.fun-mooc.fr/en/courses/reproduc… Second level, for those who do computational research: […]

Original post on scholar.social

George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

Another interesting looking study on the impact of #LLM #text production on academic papers and reviewers' perceptions. "non-domain #lexical complexity rises from 32.67 to 43.18, sharply after 2023; domain jargon rises from 47.39 to 51.34; abstract length rises from 161 to 189 words […]

code4lib.social

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George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/09/2026

Job losses of any type, anywhere are upsetting. No-one wants to see them. The auto #industry in the #UK, however, is totemic, much like the fishing industry. This is to the detriment of others. Sectors that are genuinely world leading but receive little or no support in tough times, like […]

code4lib.social

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George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/09/2026

RE: code4lib.social/@g3om4c/11704822811… ICYMI, details of a paper I published recently with a colleague on the topic of open #repository #persistence and its impact on the scholarly record. Contains a number of useful improvements arising from peer review (thanks reviewers!). 😀 […]

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George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/08/2026

Sobering reading: "The message is simple and stark. For Scotland’s higher education system to keep doing what it is currently doing it needs an extra £200m, each year." Assessing Scotland’s sector finances wonkhe.com/blogs/assessing-scotland… #universities #Scotland […]

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Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/08/2026

Map showing Lake Ontario renamed to Lake Metadata

Reposted by George Macgregor

Christof S. 🇪🇺 @christof.fedihum.org.ap.brid.gy · 25/08/2026

Interesting CfP for the "Transactions on Graph Data and Knowledge" journal: "Special Issue: Semantic Digital Humanities" www.dagstuhl.de/de/institute/news/2… Due date is 31 January 2027.

TGDK - CfP Special Issue: Semantic Digital Humanities

TGDK - CfP Special Issue: Semantic Digital Humanities

George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/08/2026

Flagged to me on LinkedIn and sharing here because of its absurdity. I have encountered an example like it. Is this in the spirit of 'data availability'?! www.nature.com/articles/s41591-026-… Here is the original post […] [Original post on code4lib.social]

Data availability statement from an academic paper: "Access to deidentified participant data may be available to researchers who provide a statistically coherent proposal to the corresponding author, beginning 9 months after publication, for 36 months. By ‘statistically coherent’, we mean that the data requested might reasonably be expected to answer the question asked (either alone or in aggregate with other datasets) with a reasonable chance of statistical precision."

George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/08/2026

RE: code4lib.social/@g3om4c/11707588389… And so the #enshittification continues... Goodness, it is so, so boring....

George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/08/2026

Worth checking out! An interesting episode of the The Guardian #Science podcast this week, exploring the #cognitive benefits arising from #reading. The decline in reading is I think something everyone recognises but useful to hear the benefits and risks (of not reading) laid out, including how […]

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George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/08/2026

The #enshittification of the web arising from #AI is just so manifest. And I am so sick of it. Once again, our services are undergoing a protracted phase of #bot #swarming and -- despite best efforts -- knocking our services offline. In other words, the high value content that #LLMs rely on […]

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George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/08/2026

I can report that our article (co-authored with Joy Davidson) - 'Examining Persistence of European Open Repository Infrastructure & its Diffusion in the #Scholarly Record' - has been published. The work explores the extent to which #persistence is observed by #repositories & the institutions […]

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Katie Fraser @katie.donphan.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/08/2026

I've published a blog post on the practitioner day at #LdnOpenFest26 this Spring blog.lboro.ac.uk/rdm/2026/08/practi…. The day covered a range of activities enabling openness from research […]

Original post on donphan.social

George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/08/2026

🤣 but also 😭! Technological Advancements Allow Data Centers To Run On Even More Electricity - The Onion theonion.com/technological-advancem… #AI #GenAI #datacenters #datacenterenergy #datacenterssuck #TheOnion

Technological Advancements Allow Data Centers To Run On Even More Electricity

SAN FRANCISCO—Hailing rapid developments in the infrastructure needed to support artificial intelligence, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced Tuesday that technological advancements were now allowing data centers to run on even more electricity. “People said we were using an unacceptable amount of power, and with these upgraded facilities that require so much more of it, we’ve […] The post Technological Advancements Allow Data Centers To Run On Even More Electricity appeared first on The Onion.

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George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/07/2026

#Wildfires are terrible, wherever they occur. That's a given. But I find it curious that the recent #Cairngorms wildfire -- which remains ongoing and has been raging since 15 July -- has to date destroyed *25 sq km* of moorland and forest near Aviemore. It […] [Original post on code4lib.social]

Screen shot of BBC News: Suffolk wildfire not yet under control, fire service says

Reposted by George Macgregor

2 Spoopy 4 You @jcrabapple.dmv.community.ap.brid.gy · 21/07/2026

🏦 TIL: Five US tech giants are carrying $1.65 trillion in AI-related obligations that don't appear on their balance sheets, more than the $1.35 trillion that does. A Nikkei study of Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle found this invisible debt has grown 8x in four years. It's future […]

Original post on dmv.community

George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/07/2026

SIGIR 2026 is happening just now in Melbourne. As one might expect, interesting looking papers being presented! This one caught my attention... A Comparative Study of Users' Information-Seeking Practices Across #Search Engines and Generative AI #Chatbots doi.org/10.1145/3805712.3809525 […]

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George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/07/2026

Spinning the #jazz discs while working from home today. A mixture of classic Blue Note and new #BlueNote (Walter Smith III), and some soothing European sounds from the likes of Jasper Høiby's 3Elements on #Edition, Maciej Obara on #ECM, and QOW Trio on #Whirlwind & #Ubuntu.

Collage photo of LP sleeve art. Pictured: Jasper Høiby 3Elements, Walter Smith III 'Three of us are from Houston and Reuben is not', Maciej Obara 'Frozen Silence', QOW Trio 'Rule of Three' and 'The Hold Up', Hank Mobley 'Hank Mobley', and Kenny Burrell 'Blue Lights vol.1'.

Reposted by George Macgregor

George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/07/2026

Interested in digital accessibility? Connecting students with alternative format #learning materials? Connecting staff with #research materials? Working on a 'whole university' approach to #accessibility? If so, come join us at the University of #Glasgow -- because we're recruiting a Manager to […]

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George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/07/2026

Interested in digital accessibility? Connecting students with alternative format #learning materials? Connecting staff with #research materials? Working on a 'whole university' approach to #accessibility? If so, come join us at the University of #Glasgow -- because we're recruiting a Manager to […]

code4lib.social

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George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/07/2026

Beta of Claude Science AI Workbench launched. I have two conflicting reactions: 1) Woah. Just woah. But also... 2) What could possibly go wrong?! The claim that its results have been 'independently validated' and produces 'robust analyses' warrants some -- no pun intended -- robust probing […]

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George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/06/2026

Spotted in Glasgow, on Shields Road. #JSTOR appear to be deploying a new guerilla marketing campaign... 😉 But is it working?!

Picture of a wall which features graffiti. Graffiti reads 'JSTOR'.

George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/06/2026

Release Candidate 1 of EPrints 3.5 is available for community testing! 🥳 3.5 represents a major update to the #EPrints #repository #software -- see here for updates: wiki.eprints.org/w/EPrints_3.5.0 Installation instructions are available […]

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George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/06/2026

In a beautifully sunny #Southampton for the UK/IE Digital Humanities Association Conference. Speaking with colleagues later on the topic of 'The Persistence of Infrastructure' -- or perhaps the lack thereof? Let's see what mood we're in! Cracking poster […] [Original post on code4lib.social]

Image of the main entrance to the Avenue Campus Building at University of Southampton. Greek style columns encircle the main doorway.

Picture of a University of Southampton sign for Avenue Campus, directing readers to Building 65 Parkes and Highfield Campus.

George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/06/2026

Share your code, and beautiful things will grow is the lesson here! Gaming is not my forte, but lovely to see the sharing of code via #GitHub triggering such rapid innovation. youtu.be/onKTVMmy-sA?si=AT8pNAY2grF… #Doom #gaming #retrogaming #retrocomputing

George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/06/2026

The #Library #Innovation Lab #Harvard has just launched #WARCbench, which they describe as a "Swiss Army Knife for #WARC Processing". This is a high benchmark because I frickin' love Swiss Army knives! 😀But, on a serious note, this WARCbench looks seriously useful. As someone who has recently […]

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George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/06/2026

Received this book as a birthday gift. It's a riveting read if you love music, jazz, saxophones -- or even if you don't love those things. Here's a copy at the Internet Archive: archive.org/details/devilshornstory… #jazz #saxophone #woodwind #books

Picture of a front cover of a book. The book is 'The Devil's Horn : The story of the saxophone from noisy novelty to king of cool' by Michael Segell. My hand is visible, as is my lap, upon which the book is resting.

George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/06/2026

"Automated subject #cataloging assigns controlled #vocabulary headings to #bibliographic records, but #LCSH has no standard public benchmark. We introduce LCSHBench: 22,346 books in 15 languages from the openly licensed Harvard, Columbia, and Princeton #catalogs [...] we release per-catalog […]

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George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/06/2026

Another panning of a well-known rock star's foray into #visual #art. But is their art really that bad? A string of famous #musicians have been trying their hand recently. All are universally panned by #critics. Makes me wonder if there might be a latent desire among critics to punish musicians […]

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Mike Taylor 🦕 @mike.sauropods.win.ap.brid.gy · 31/05/2026

"The truth is, tech doesn’t have an image problem. It doesn’t have a message problem. It has an intention problem. […] When you launch a product that’s designed to put millions of people out of work, block access to sources of verifiable truth, replace human creativity with slop, and lower the […]

Original post on sauropods.win

George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/05/2026

A lovely reflection on how those involved in #Netscape reimagined #software development and its #distribution in the early days of the web. As the Hoffman notes, "Netscape time is simply just time now." The lasting influence of Netscape Time […]

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paulwalk @paulwalk.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/05/2026

Shout out to Skosify! It's an essential component in the tool chain I constructed to produce and maintain the COAR Vocabularies. I love the way Skosify just works :-) github.com/NatLibFi/Skosify vocabularies.coar-repositories.org

GitHub - NatLibFi/Skosify: Validate, convert and improve SKOS vocabularies

Validate, convert and improve SKOS vocabularies. Contribute to NatLibFi/Skosify development by creating an account on GitHub.

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Reposted by George Macgregor

Doctor M. Popular @docpop.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/05/2026

ArXiv announces a ban on AI content and the responses are hilarious. > You expect us to actually read the papers we cite?! yes, lol! www.404media.co/new-arxiv-rules-ai-…

Screenshot from Thomas Dietterich on X:
"Attention @arxiv authors: Our Code of Conduct states that by signing your name as an author of a paper, each author takes full responsibility for all its contents, irrespective of how the contents were generated."

With a reply from James Miller:
"So this means you expect every author to check every citation and make sure that every citation is real and accurate? What if it's beyond the ability of one of the authors to verify one of the citations because that citation is in a language he doesn't know or concerns technical material he doesn't understand but another author on the paper does?"

George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/05/2026

A weighty thematic issue of Information Research has just dropped: 'Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Information Science'. The issue includes 44 papers exploring information seeking in the age of #AI, #information evaluation and use, information #retrieval, trust and security, future research […]

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Digital Preservation Coalition @dpc-chat.digipres.club.ap.brid.gy · 12/05/2026

The web never stands still 🌐 ... and neither do the challenges of preserving it. The #DPC is preparing for the return of its Web Archiving Special Interest Group (WA-SIG), bringing DPC Members together in a welcoming and transparent space where Members can exchange ideas, surface challenges […]

Original post on digipres.club

George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/05/2026

More evidence of the corrosive impact of AI on #scholarship #integrity. According to this research in the biomedical context, #fabricated #citations existed in: ~1 in 2,828 papers (2023), ~1 in 458 (2025), ~1 in 277 (early 2026). A twelvefold increase. Horrifying. The recommendations here are […]

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George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/05/2026

A nice exploration of #cybernetics and its history features in the latest episode of In Our Time. Many won't learn anything new but it remains an interesting whistle stop tour of the principal concepts of #systems (feedback loops, control, etc), the key personalities (Weiner, Beer, etc), and its […]

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kim_harding ✅ @kim-harding.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 22/04/2026

‘Staggering’ number of people believe unproven claims about vaccines, raw milk and more www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-… Survey results suggest a rise in questioning of scientific evidence.

George Macgregor @g3om4c.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/04/2026

Astonishing to think that Nigel Alderton was a mere 15 years old when he designed and programmed Chuckie Egg. What an iconic and thoroughly addictive 8-bit #microcomputer game of the early 80s! ‘People still remember it 40 years later’: the making of Chuckie Egg […]

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Street Art Utopia @streetartutopia.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 30/03/2026

Sideshow Bob by Marquitos Corvalán. <3 When Nature Become Art (17 Photos): streetartutopia.com/2026/03/30/natu…

Street art mural by Marquitos Corvalán depicting Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons painted on a white brick wall, with thick green hanging plants above cleverly forming his wild, spiky hair. The character stands with a smug expression, wearing a green shirt and blue pants, while the natural foliage blends seamlessly into the artwork, creating a playful illusion where nature becomes part of the design.

Reposted by George Macgregor

Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/03/2026

A Georgetown University teacher to her students: Don't be part of the "AI" lemming brigade. medium.com/center-on-privacy-techno…