Three Steps to Heaven: Semantic Publishing in a Real World Workflow

Semantic publishing offers the promise of computable papers, enriched visualisation and a realisation of the linked data ideal. In reality, however, the publication process contrives to prevent richer semantics while culminating in a `lumpen' PDF. In this paper, we discuss a web-first approach to publication, and describe a three-tiered approach which integrates with the existing authoring tooling. Critically, although it adds limited semantics, it does provide value to all the participants in the process: the author, the reader and the machine.Comment: Published as part of SePublica 201

The Accessibility of Mathematical Notation on the Web and Beyond

This paper serves two purposes. First, it offers an overview of the role of the Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) in representing mathematical notation on the Web, and its significance for accessibility. To orient the discussion, hypotheses are advanced regarding users’ needs in connection with the accessibility of mathematical notation. Second, current developments in the evolution of MathML are reviewed, noting their consequences for accessibility, and commenting on prospects for future improvement in the concrete experiences of users of assistive technologies. Recommendations are advanced for further research and development activities, emphasizing the cognitive aspects of user interface design

Special Libraries, March 1943

Volume 34, Issue 3https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1943/1002/thumbnail.jp

Augmenting the field experience: a student-led comparison of techniques and technologies

In this study we report on our experiences of creating and running a student fieldtrip exercise which allowed students to compare a range of approaches to the design of technologies for augmenting landscape scenes. The main study site is around Keswick in the English Lake District, Cumbria, UK, an attractive upland environment popular with tourists and walkers. The aim of the exercise for the students was to assess the effectiveness of various forms of geographic information in augmenting real landscape scenes, as mediated through a range of techniques and technologies. These techniques were: computer-generated acetate overlays showing annotated wireframe views from certain key points; a custom-designed application running on a PDA; a mediascape running on the mScape software on a GPS-enabled mobile phone; Google Earth on a tablet PC; and a head-mounted in-field Virtual Reality system. Each group of students had all five techniques available to them, and were tasked with comparing them in the context of creating a visitor guide to the area centred on the field centre. Here we summarise their findings and reflect upon some of the broader research questions emerging from the project

Only to the extent: insanity in the works of Kurt Vonnegut and redesigning developmental education

"Only to the Extent: Insanity in the Works of Kurt Vonnegut" details the author's public struggle with mental illness and explores a selection of his major works as coping mechanisms. The author used the realm of literature to purge his own inner fears, but did so in a way that insulated the turmoil contained on the page. Vonnegut viewed literature and media to be responsible for the propagation of a great many "cuckoo ideas," thus he made a variety of deliberate, careful structural moves with the intended effect of building community without perpetuating false or harmful expectations. Vonnegut refused to bring "order to chaos," instead attempting to show the chaos that underlies what people like to perceive as order. "Redesigning Developmental Education" details the changes that many developmental education departments--ranging from mathematics to English to reading--have been experimenting with in order to meet the growing demand for enrollment while coping with dwindling resources. The emporium, the laboratory based model that many schools have adopted and many more are considering, does not solve the problems that developmental education programs face. Such a program only serves to mitigate some of the pragmatic difficulties in educating a financially struggling population and does nothing to address the theoretical flaws that hinder student success upon entry into curriculum classes. To that end, I have devised a platform for education that is intended to address both the pragmatic issues of classroom space and funding while giving students more opportunities to write in a rhetorical situation. Students should no longer simply complete developmental courses, instead they should truly develop