I wrote, last year, that [2019 was pretty bad for me](https://eve.gd/2019/12/14/my-2019-in-review/). Little did any of us know of the grimness that 2020 would bring with the coronavirus pandemic. I have spent almost all of this year "shielding", which can feel somewhat isolating, although I am fortunate to live with my wife, which ameliorates this greatly.

There's a prominent post at Ars Technica called [Linux on laptops: Ubuntu 19.10 on the HP Dragonfly Elite G1](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/01/linux-on-laptops-ubuntu-19-10-on-the-hp-dragonfly-elite-g1/) that implies that it is easy and straightforward to install Ubuntu on the HP Dragonfly Elite laptop.

Studies such as my Warez book fall under the rubric of ‘netnographies’; work that attempt to examine ethnographically the principles and characteristics of various online cultures. A fundamental challenge of working in this space is the issue of ethics, though. Most of the documents and conversations that have been surfaced in the DeFacto2 archive were thought, by the conversation participants, to have been held in private.

Studies such as [my Warez book](/2020/10/10/an-update-on-my-warez-book/) fall under the rubric of ‘netnographies’; work that attempt to examine ethnographically the principles and characteristics of various online cultures. A fundamental challenge of working in this space is the issue of ethics, though.

As part of my efforts on Work Package 3 of the COPIM project I am engaged in a project that seeks to convert publishers to business models that will allow them to publish their books openly, without using unaffordable book processing charges (which authors hate and which will not scale). I am pleased to say that, as of today, we can [announce the first press to take the leap: the Central European University

After a Herculean effort, coinciding with open access week 2020, our edited volume Reassembling Scholarly Communications: Histories, Infrastructures, and Global Politics of Open Access has now been published by The MIT Press. It's available both in print to purchase and as a CC BY open-access download. I wanted to take this opportunity to write a few words about the goals of the volume, which speak to my interests in open access.

After a Herculean effort, coinciding with open access week 2020, our edited volume Reassembling Scholarly Communications: Histories, Infrastructures, and Global Politics of Open Access has now been published by The MIT Press. It's available both in print to purchase and as a CC BY open-access download. I wanted to take this opportunity to write a few words about the goals of the volume, which speak to my interests in open access.

I am, at present, working on a book currently entitled _Warez: The Economic Artforms and Illicit Crafts of the Topsite Scene_, under contract with punctum books. The title has changed since it went under contract in order to better reflect the content -- and it might well change again.

Today, in the Observer , the Sunday national newspaper of the liberal Guardian Media Group, Will Hutton offered a sobering retrospective of the university crisis during the Covid pandemic, from his position as the former principal of Hertford College, Oxford.

Today, in the _Observer_, the Sunday national newspaper of the liberal Guardian Media Group, Will Hutton offered a sobering retrospective of the university crisis during the Covid pandemic, from his position as the former principal of Hertford College, Oxford.

A journalist recently asked me for a comment on why I, as an academic who studies academic publishing, signed [a petition](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nwWTW2sNrkn9mwxtcUBcGVZL2x6hXv7FOX3P_3VgTLA/edit) calling for the retraction of Mead, Lawrence M., ‘Poverty and Culture’, Society, 2020 . I wanted to publish my full reasoning here ahead of any publication that might quote me. When I saw this petition circulating, I took time to read the