As I mentioned in my lwn interview a few weeks ago, I’m curious about where the Open Collaboration Services/Social Desktop is going- while I have not been able to figure out if this is the right way to do it, it is obvious that the Free desktop needs to start experimenting with and exploring this sort of space, and this project seems to be leading in that direction.

That curiosity has now turned into a bit more; I’m going to be a judge for the application contest that Social Desktop is now running. The contest closes in late August; could be a fun way to spend part of your summer hacking time.

While I’m obviously not going to be hacking, I expect this will be an interesting educational opportunity for me- I want to learn more about what these APIs can do, and this should be a good way for me to do it. :) More importantly, this is an interesting way to get eyeballs and hackers focused on this space, and I hope it (or something like it) succeeds.

Early this week I published Columbia Science and Technology Law Review Volume 10, completing my responsibilities as Editor-in-Chief.

We have some interesting articles that I’m glad to have worked on – particularly, I think, the very interesting (and readable!) article on what is known in contract law as the ‘mailbox rule’- and how it is obsolete in the internet age.

Of perhaps more personal pride to me is the letter from the EIC that I was able to write, explaining that the journal is going Open Access and complying with the Durham Statement on Open Access, recently published by the librarians of several leading law schools. In practical terms, this was not a huge change for us- we already published online and in pdf. However, moving to library servers is important for our permanence, and it is an important symbolic change as well. Frankly, I expect that the economic hit many law schools are taking right now, combined with new accreditation standards that are likely to reduce or eliminate mandatory journal purchases by libraries, is going to push a lot of journals away from expensive paper publication and towards online publication, and my hope is that we’re ahead of the trend here- showing others that you can still do good scholarship this way.

We’ve got a variety of news coverage out of it, most notably from Open Access News and Berkman.

I can’t say I’m completely thrilled with the process; specifically, we decided to go with the more conservative non-commercial no-derivatives Creative Commons license, when I would have preferred a more open share-alike policy. But we’re talking baby steps here, and I think even this restrictive license is good for our authors (open access increases citation counts) and good for law as a whole.

And with that I’m done with STLR, and really with Columbia. Thanks to my entire staff; you were great under all circumstances (pleasant and otherwise) and to Krissa for putting up with me for another year. :)

Julian Sanchez on the reaction from some quarters to Sonia Sotomayor. Sanchez is a lot like me- sort of libertarian-leaning, not terribly comfortable with lefty identity politics, and not very close to his Hispanic heritage. And still, apparently, pretty damned angry over the reception Sonia Sotomayor has gotten. The whole thing is really worth reading, but the money graph is:

Look, it’s not racist to oppose a Latina judicial nominee, or to oppose affirmative action, or to point out genuine evidence of ethnic bias on the part of minorities. What we’re seeing here, though, is people clinging to the belief that Sotomayor has to be some mediocrity who struck the ethnic jackpot, that whatever benefit she got from affirmative action must be vastly more significant than her own qualities, that she’s got to be a harpy boiling with hatred for whitey, however overwhelming the evidence against all these propositions is. This is really profoundly ugly.

Perfectly encapsulates one of the prime reasons why I can’t touch the modern Republican party with a ten foot pole, even if I’m in several ways far to the ‘right’ of the center of the Democratic party.

(Tangentially, I’ve been meaning to write a post on ‘activist’ judging, and why the core accusation rings true for most people but those pushing it as a political accusation are mostly just fearmongering and quite often blatantly lying about the legal realities they are purportedly discussing. Sadly, I will not have time to do that any time soon; if you’re curious, in the meantime, I highly recommend reading the section on judges in Audacity of Hope- a fair, nuanced, intelligent discussion of the issue that doesn’t get too into the weeds of judicial interpretation but does explain the problems with the situation in pretty plain English.)

The other thing is a piece by John Scalzi on ‘being a closet introvert.’ Apparently he tells people all the time that he’s an introvert, and they don’t believe him. I’ve had the exact same experience, for reasons he lays out well. I’ll keep this bookmarked to send to people next time I have the experience. ;)

Two tools that are going to make that a little easier:

• As usual, leechblock. Truly excellent for defining your workday. (I know I was on semi-vacation the past two weeks because I turned off leechblock.)
• Anki- libre, multi-platform flashcards to help me memorize all the various stuff that I have to stuff into my head in the next two months. Includes sync and a web-based version so I can work on my phone or across multiple laptops.

The celebration, while it lasted, was pretty nice. Some things that got done this weekend with my parents in town:

• lots of good food: at Dizzy’s at Jazz at Lincoln Center; at Blue Hill; at the awesomely yummy yet fairly reasonable Kuma Inn; at the awesomely yummy yet totally cheap Caracas Arepa Bar.
• music: Dizzy’s had music too- Bill Charlap trio. I think the music critic-approved phrase is ’spectacular display of piano virtuosity.’ Also saw In The Heights again (first musical I’ve ever seen twice); still spectacular.
• museums: went to the Museum of Art and Design to see their glass and industrial ceramics exhibitions, and to the Guggenheim to see their Frank Lloyd Wright retrospective. Both highly recommended.
• walks; the weather has been terrific and we’ve been able to walk quite a bit, including some time in a gorgeous Central Park yesterday.
• friends: shout out to the close friends who ended up at the impromptu hat party!

So really, I can’t complain too much… now back to the grindstone.

A degree or reasonable facsimile thereof.

Parents arriving as we speak; actual graduation tomorrow.