GAIN conference retrospectively Day 2
The second day at the GAIN conference was obviously the most intense day simply because it was the only full day. However, the program was well designed which minimised stress and maximised my...
View ArticleGAIN conference retrospectively Day 3
The last day of the conference was only half a day and the only one without pure Q&A sessions but more traditional panel discussions. First session The first session was another workshop with three...
View ArticleGAIN conference retrospectively conclusion
Well, this has been going on for too long… This final post should have concluded the mini-series weeks ago. Instead, it has prevented me from writing about anything else. So let me conclude with some...
View ArticleGAIN another retrospective
The people over at GAIN headquarters asked me if I could write a short piece about the conference for their newsletter. Even though I have been swamped with work (perfect proof being the lack of...
View ArticleIntroducing mathblogging.org
I think I mentioned at some point that I had started a secret little project a few months ago. Well, Felix, Fred and I have decided that the new year should be plenty of reason to put some more …
View ArticleThe candy stores of academia
Over lunch I had one of those really excellent discussions you can enjoy with grad students at the University of Michigan. Among a thousand interesting topics we talked about the question of career...
View ArticlePunkmath, annotatr and gender discussions
So last week was pretty abysmal as I spent most of the time in bed with a cold like I haven’t had in a while. Since this led to a major shutdown of my brain I failed to do anything …
View Articlegender discussion at quomodocumque
Since I had promised, let me post the comment I finally added to the discussion at quomodocumque I had mentioned before. Also: note the link to Ivelisse Rubio’s talk in there — it’s finally online! I...
View ArticleYoung Set Theory Workshop 2011
It’s been a while. In case you were wondering where the heck I have been these last two months, check out mathblogging.org and our blog at wordpress.com. The last week I was able to spend at the Young...
View ArticleWhy I back Relatively Prime
On of the pleasures of running mathblogging.org is that you get to find out about immensely creative people working on new ways to make use of the web for mathematics. ACME Science Only a few weeks...
View ArticleDear Keith Devlin
Dear Keith Devlin, I love your work. Really, I do. So please don’t take this rant the wrong way. I promise I’ll shut up after this one rant, I just really need to get this off my chest. #begin rant…
View ArticleThe Mathematician’s Homepage — can it be more?
Yesterday I went on a rant about Keith Devlin’s homepage and twitter. That was, like all rants, a little unfair on him. I guess idols are always more disappointing. However, although the rant was...
View ArticleWhat’s in a name
This is a slightly idolized recollection how we came to adopt the name Booles’ Rings. When Sam and I began looking seriously into the idea of wordpress for mathematicians we also started thinking...
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Formal proofs are our democracy
Reading papers can lead to horrible acts. Today, I felt like mutilating a famous quote. Many forms of communicating mathematics have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one...
View ArticleThe recent publishing debate — a timeline
In the last 3 weeks I have written a couple of drafts about the debate that finally hit the mathematical blogosphere through Tim Gowers’s blog (I don’t know how much he is aware of similar, ongoing...
View ArticleThe recent publishing debate — Nisan’s posts
The original post was getting longer and longer so I split it up. To refresh your memory, Nov 2 Algorithmic Game-Theory/Economics // Noam Nisan: The problem with journals Nov 3 Algorithmic...
View ArticleThe recent publishing debate — The economic power of publishers
I have been trying to find the time to continue my posts on the publishing debate, discussing the other posts from the original timeline. Suffice it to say, I’ve not yet given up getting around to it…...
View ArticleThe recent publishing debate — the IMU’s blog continues
My last post has seen quite a lot of visitors (my stats look miserable now that there was such a spike…). But hardly anybody left a comment (thanks to those who did — much appreciated!). Did people...
View ArticleRepresenting Booles’ Rings at Science Online 2012
At the end of January, I’ll be at Scio12! Science Online is that super awesomesauce (un)conference where all the hipster science bloggers hang out — and also those fantastic little companies working on...
View ArticleAfter the common room, how about the seminar room?
The most impressive community on the (specifically mathematical) intertubes is MathOverflow. Not only because François is one of the moderators and Joel is the #1 power user or because it has...
View ArticleA comment on Tim Gowers’s blog
I just left an awfully long comment on Tim Gowers’s blog. Thanks, François for mentioning the new post on twitter! Incidentally, it seems that my email is considered spam by Akismet these days, so it...
View ArticleIf you build it, will they come?
Last week, Tim Gowers published another post on the publishing debate entitled “Abstract thoughts about online review systems”. There are, as usual, interesting thoughts both in the post and in the...
View Articlestate of foundational research
I was catching up on some fun google-reader reading today but found with a depressing combination of content. To be The title of this post is taken from this math.SE question which boils down to: Is it...
View Articleyay, I’m an editor at ScienceSeeker.org
Apparently, I totally forgot to announce this anywhere on my interwebz! With its major code update three weeks ago, scienceseeker.org introduced an editorial system where editors can mark particular...
View ArticleWaiting for the Polymath revolution — thoughts from a bystander
Tim Gowers has hinted at a revival of the fifth Polymath project. Which brings something back from the bottom of my draft folder. Let’s talk about Polymath If you haven’t heard of the Polymath project,...
View Article11 dreams for the publishing debate — #1 fewer papers
Many moons ago, Gowers’ “alternative” model for publishing started a new round in the publishing debate and ever since, drafts have piled up around here, some bad, some worse, some long, some short....
View Article11 dreams for the publishing debate — #2 get real credit for surveys and...
And now the continuation… Each new post will start from the top, so scroll down a little if you’ve read the previous one — but also check out the first post for some motivation. These are dreams. Some...
View Article11 dreams for the publishing debate — #3 get real credit for refereeing
Meanwhile back on the ranch… Each new post will start from the top, so scroll down a little if you’ve read the previous one — but also check out the first post for some motivation. These are dreams....
View Article11 dreams for the publishing debate — #4 get real credit for communicating
Meanwhile back on the ranch… Each new post will start from the top, so scroll down a little if you’ve read the previous one — but also check out the first post for some motivation. These are dreams....
View Article11 dreams for the publishing debate — #5 sharing all our work every way we can
Hop, skip and a jump — missed a day there, sorry. Each new post will start from the top, so scroll down a little if you’ve read the previous one — but also check out the first post for some …
View Article11 dreams for the publishing debate — #6 publishing in smaller increments
One more, one more, one more… Each new post will start from the top, so scroll down a little if you’ve read the previous one — but also check out the first post for some motivation. These are dreams....
View Article11 dreams for the publishing debate — #7 an affordable open access model
Here we go again… Each new post will start from the top, so scroll down a little if you’ve read the previous one — but also check out the first post for some motivation. These are dreams. Some are...
View Article11 dreams for the publishing debate — #8 a cultural change of doing research...
On and on and on… Each new post will start from the top, so scroll down a little if you’ve read the previous one — but also check out the first post for some motivation. These are dreams. Some are …
View Article11 dreams for the publishing debate — #9 propagating the Shelah Model
3, 2, 1… Each new post will start from the top, so scroll down a little if you’ve read the previous one — but also check out the first post for some motivation. These are dreams. Some are...
View Article11 dreams for the publishing debate — #10 from come-to-me to the...
I got two more, just two more… Each new post will start from the top, so scroll down a little if you’ve read the previous one — but also check out the first post for some motivation. These are dreams. …
View Article11 dreams for the publishing debate — #11 a democratization of the communities
And now the conclusion. Each new post will start from the top, so scroll down a little if you’ve read the previous one — but also check out the first post for some motivation. These are dreams. Some...
View Article11 dreams for the publishing debate, the complete version
This is a double-post of sorts. The reasons is that it took me a very long time to write this (in fact, the first draft is marked April 18). In the process, quite a number of versions were stored by …
View ArticleHas it really been a year?
This is a joined post with Sam — go comment at his place! Almost exactly a year ago, the two of us (Sam and Peter) sat down to talk about what we could do together to help …
View Articleself-publishing, the academic community and LaTeX fanboyism — a comment at...
Yet another one of those “Peter babbled too long on somebody else blog”-posts. This time at Keith Devlin’s MAA column/blog Devlin’s Angle A few comments. About your reply to Corey’s comment. “That...
View ArticleA virtual Kaffehaus on g+
So that went well. Two weeks ago I tried to do something that I always wanted to do and that Sam had done a couple of times with a more specific focus. That is, use google+ hangouts to simply meet …
View ArticleThe Forum of Mathematics, blessing or curse?
When the Forum of Mathematics was announced on Tim Gowers’s blog I mentioned this on twitter and I got a couple of replies asking what my thoughts on it were. Well, this post has been stuck in my...
View ArticleJMM 2013
Early this morning, I drove down to San Diego to be at the Joint Math Meetings 2013 for the very first time. (Well, last year, I mostly sneaked in to meet friends and didn’t even register — or got to …
View ArticleWhy academic societies should start fully fledged social networks
The Joint Math Meetings 2013 ended with the AMS’s 125th Anniversary banquet. One of the things mentioned there was that the AMS is working on some form of online communities. That’s great, but doesn’t...
View ArticlePublishers should invest in browser development (a comment at the scholarly...
In the tradition of posting stuff I write elsewhere, here’s a comment I just posted at the scholarly kitchen. It’s not really about the article. On a slightly different note. Despite many investments...
View ArticleI don’t always use LaTeX, but when I do…
Since I haven’t published anything in almost two months, let me jot down one thought that has come to mind frequently over the past few months. If you use LaTeX … Well, first of all, are you sure you...
View ArticleName 5 top journals you read…
The AMS is currently running a survey (I think it’s members only? But if you got an invite, make sure to take the time). It has asked me the following question Please list the top 5 journals that you...
View ArticleHow to publish all my research notes?
Last August, I finally finished my report for the DFG regarding my wonderful two years at Michigan. Part of this was to revisit all my old notes and publications. This has reminded me of something I’ve...
View ArticleJust when I thought I was out
I recently pondered whether I should stop reading the few remaining mathoverflow and math.stackexchange feeds I keep in my feed reader (remember that archaic technology? I still use it heavily). Ever...
View ArticleLaTeX Something Something Darkside
[This is week 3 of the challenge. Ok, I’m stretching “every week” a bit here. I blame somebody’s first cold or alternatively Turkeys. Also, I cheated; this took longer than 30mins.] Darth Vader/Stewie:...
View Article#dotAstro FTW
[This is week 4 of the challenge. woohoo.] Today I only have ~15 min. This week, I happen to be in Chicago for dotAstronomy 6. This might be odd since I’m not an astronomer (nowhere near in fact). It …
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