Well thank goodness for that - I only joined the UKEIG Jiscmail list
recently. I thought I was alone in not understanding a single one of
Gerry McKiernan's posts!
Anne Harris
-----Original Message-----
From: UKEIG: the UK eInformation Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Megan Roberts
Sent: 23 August 2010 09:34
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The Universe Is Not Flat >>> Let The Conversations Continue
>>>
Gerry,
Can I just reiterate what Dave Pattern wrote to you on the Web 2
Jiscmail list, and for the interest of others who are not members of
that list, I have reproduced his email below. Many thanks to Dave for
verbalising so well what so many of us are thinking!
Megan Roberts
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
Gerry
I don't believe for a second that you'll read this response to your
latest ramblings and I'm keenly aware that, by replying, I'm just
"feeding the troll" (to use an old internet expression).
Having read interviews you've given in the past, it's clear that you are
obsessed with your many blogs and how highly they rank. And, I'm sure,
if I too were to spam every library email list if I could find with
messages that seem to do little more than contain links back to my blog
(known in the trade as "link spam"), I too could dance with Leprechauns
and achieve a high Technorati rank. Personally, I don't believe for a
minute that you have as high a ranking as you claim -- anyone who has
had the misfortune to browse one of your blogs will know that your posts
rarely attract any comments. It's perhaps worth noting that the most
respected library bloggers out there (I'm thinking here of people like
Michael Stephens, Sarah Houghton-Jan, Jenny Levine, Jessamyn West, et
al) don't feel the need to behave in the way you do.
Like others, I wonder if you really have a day job? I also wonder what
your colleagues and bosses think? From what I gather, they choose to
turn a blind eye to the hours you spend sending out link spam to mailing
lists.
Like all prolific spammers, you work on the assumption that by spamming
thousands of people, you might (purely by chance) make a connection with
a couple of people of are genuinely interested in what you have to say
(and they probably subscribed to your blog anyway). And, like all
prolific spammers, you care not for the majority who regard your
ramblings as a nuisance. Seriously Gerry, is your Library Messiah
Complex so far advanced now that you believe the onus is on us to find
new ways of blocking your emails? Those who have been trying to do that
for years tell me that you frequently change your email address.
You claim to be "contributing" to the dozens of email lists that you
spam? I'm struggling to recall any instances of you actually
contributing to a discussion on a mailing list -- and sadly, the rare
occasions when you do, it's to insult others, e.g. http://bit.ly/cAM3By
You claim to only posts things that you believe are relevant? I see
very little evidence of that. In fact, I believe it is one of the
primary reasons why you have been blocked from so many email lists. Did
you honestly believe that the email below was so extra relevant, so
incredibly important, so "stop what you're doing and listen to me" that
you had to post it twice just to this list?
There was a time when I wondered if I was alone in finding your emails
irritating and a complete waste of my time, but not now. Gerry -- if
highly respected UK academics and librarians such as Dr Charles
Oppenheim, Prof Bruce Royan and Brian Kelly were asking me to stop
posting to the lists that they contribute to, I'd seriously rethink my
actions. In fact, I'd be genuinely embarrassed.
Speaking to others, I know of at least 20 instances of librarians
choosing to unsubscribe from mailing lists purely because they are fed
up of reading your sprawling, incoherent emails (if we apply the 90/9/1
rule here, then I suspect the true figure is in the 100s). I used to
subscribe to dozens of library mailing lists myself (including many of
the JISCMail lists), but the daily ritual of deleting dozens of
duplicate copies of your spams became too much -- I found that
unsubscribing from those lists entirely was a much more productive use
of my time.
I only recently rejoined LIS-WEB2 because I believed that you'd been
blocked from this list. I've been around a bit (over 15 years as a web
developer within a library environment) and I like to feel that I might
know some things that could be of help to others on LIS-WEB2. However,
I have no interest in ramming things down people's throats -- I'm happy
to wait until someone asks a question that I feel I can answer.
However, if you intend to start spamming LIS-WEB2 again, then I'm afraid
it'll just end up being another mailing list that you've forced me
unsubscribe from. But, I doubt you care -- as long as you keep getting
a small trickle to people clicking through to your blog, you can
continue to claim that you're important, that you're special, that
others look to you to be their guiding light in these dark and dangerous
times.
So, Gerry -- a personal plea: please take a long holiday, please
re-evaluate how you choose to conduct yourself in front of your peers,
and please stop spamming the few remaining email lists that I subscribe
to :-(
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
-----Original Message-----
From: gerrymck [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 20 August 2010 00:17
Subject: The Universe Is Not Flat >>> Let The Conversations Continue >>>
Preface
In April 2005, the first edition of The World Is Flat: A Brief History
of
the Twenty-First Century >>> "... an international bestselling book by
Thomas Friedman that analyzes globalization, primarily in the early
21st
century [was published]. The title is a metaphor for viewing the world
as a
level playing field in terms of commerce, where all competitors have an
equal opportunity. As the first edition cover illustration indicates,
the
title also alludes to the perceptual shift required for countries,
companies
and individuals to remain competitive in a global market where
historical
and geographical divisions are becoming increasingly irrelevant."
While some may concur with Friedman, the World and the Universe Is Not
Flat,
As They Say In France >>> Au Contraire >>>.
The World And The Universe At Any And All Levels and Dimensions Exhibit
Dynamic Variation / Diversity / Etc. ; It /They Are Not Monolithic Or A
Single Dynamic Phenomenon >>>
The Well-Known Bell (And Others) Curves Graphically Represent The Wide
Variation in Nature >>>
Part I
"In probability theory and statistics, the normal distribution, or
Gaussian
distribution, is an absolutely continuous probability distribution whose
cumulants of all orders above two are zero. The graph of the associated
probability density function is "bell"-shaped, with peak at the mean,
and is
known as the Gaussian function or bell curve."
[Graphic]
The Red Line Is The Standard Normal Distribution
As In Life, As There Is (More Or Less On Ther Internet/Web), There Are
Some
Individuals That Are More Active/Engaged Then Others >>>
Part II
Jakob Nielsen, The Smartest Person On The Web, In An October 2006
Alertbox
Posting Documents What Many Have Probably Observed >>>
Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute
Summary:
In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never
contribute,
9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all
the
action.
All large-scale, multi-user communities and online social networks that
rely
on users to contribute content or build services share one property:
most
users don't participate very much. Often, they simply lurk in the
background. When you plot the amount of activity for each user, the
result
is a Zipf curve, which shows as a straight line in a log-log diagram.
In contrast, a tiny minority of users usually accounts for a
disproportionately large amount of the content and other system
activity.
User participation often more or less follows a 90-9-1 rule:
* 90% of users are lurkers (i.e., read or observe, but don't
contribute).
* 9% of users contribute from time to time, but other priorities
dominate
their time.
* 1% of users participate a lot and account for most contributions: it
can
seem as if they don't have lives because they often post just minutes
after
whatever event they're commenting on occurs.
Soooooo .........
In A NutShell > A Few List Members Contribute Most Of The Postings To
Any
Given e-List
AND I Am Among Those Few >>>
Indeed > Overall My Blogs Are Ranked In The Top Five (5) Perecent And A
Few
In The Top One (1) Percent And Higher (Based On Technorati Rankings)
AND
BTW: Traffic On My Blogs Is Much/Much Greater Than SiteMeter Indicates
>>>
The New Blogger In Draft Stats Document Significant Visitation >>>
For Example >>>
Since June 1 2010, There Have Been More 140,000 Collective PageViews Of
Postings On My _Spectrum > Mobile Learning, Libraries, And
Technologies_
Blog As Of Today (08-19-10)
Soooooo .........
Please Don't Diss Me For Being Actively Engaged >>> Or Because I Have
Broad
Interests
Believe It Or Not > I Do Only Post Items That I Believe Are Relevant Or
Could / Might /Should Be Of Interest To My Colleagues
It's Not About Me : Many Of My Posts Highlight The Work Of Others >>>
BTW: While The Percentage Of Our Colleagues Who Read E-Lists Is
Declining,
In Favor Of Social Media >
WebJunction Survey > Library Staff Report Their Use of Online Tools >
2009
vs. 2010 > Academic vs. Public
[snip]
A Significant Portion Continue To Do >>>
Soooooo .........
If One Does Not Wish To Receive My Posting, There Are Several Options As
I
Note In A Previous Post
DeDup > Removal Of Duplicate E-Mail Postings > An Idea Who Time Has
Come?
[
http://ref-notes.blogspot.com/2010/08/dedup-removal-of-duplicate-e-mail.
html]
While I Do Believe In Leprechauns [:-)] (And Actally Did See Their
Houses On
Inishmore, The Largest Of The Aran Islands, One Of The Island Groups Off
The
Coast Of County Galway, Ireland, In 2009), I Don't Believe In Silos.
Let The Conversations Continue >>>
[ http://bit.ly/9BkgWt ]
JOY !
/Gerry
Gerry McKiernan
Associate Professor
Science and Technology Librarian
Iowa State University Library
Ames IA 50011
Follow Me On Twitter > http://twitter.com/GMcKBlogs
"It's Not About Publication; It's About Ideas"
[ http://bit.ly/bb6uW7 ]
|
