[P2P-F] Fwd: Kitsune #5 December 2016

[Michel Bauwens]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kitsune <kitsune at ronininstitute.org>
Date: Tue, Dec 20, 2016 at 1:52 AM
Subject: Kitsune #5 December 2016
To: Michel Bauwens <michel at p2pfoundation.net>


[image: The Ronin Institute for Independent Scholarship]
<http://ronininstitute.org>
Issue #5 December 2016


Greetings!

Here's the latest issue of *Kitsune*, straight from our offices to your
inbox! As always, you can find previous issues
<http://ronininstitute.org/newsletter/> on the Ronin Institute website. If
you would like to be added to the mailing list, just send us an e-mail at
kitsune at ronininstitute.org
<kitsune at ronininstitute.org?subject=Subscribe+Me!&body=What+a+cool+newsletter!+Sign+me+up!>,
and we'll add you.

Scientiam Consecemus!

------------------------------

In this Issue

Year-End Donation Time <#m_-4814153488448775825_field_donations> | The
Future of Careers in Scholarship
<#m_-4814153488448775825_field_unconference>
Ronin on Social Media <#m_-4814153488448775825_field_social_media> |
Post-Election
Message <#m_-4814153488448775825_field_election> | Publications
<#m_-4814153488448775825_field_publications> | About
<#m_-4814153488448775825_field_about>

------------------------------

*Year-End Donation Time*

The end of 2016 is fast approaching, so this is a good time to remind you
that the Ronin Institute is a publicly supported 501(c)3, your donations
are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law. So donate now to get
that deduction for this year's return. You can donate online by visiting our
website <http://ronininstitute.org/donate/>, or you can go straight to
our JustGive
page <https://npo.justgive.org/RoninInstitute>. Or, you can give by check
made out to the Ronin Institute and mailed to Ronin Institute, 127 Haddon
Pl, Montclair, NJ 07043.

If you are interested in specifically directing your donation to our
Conference Scholarships program, you can select the Conference Scholarships
option under "Program". If you make your donation by check, indicate
"Conference Scholarships" on the memo line. Remember that the members of
the board are offering a matching donation $1000 if we can reach $3000 in
donations to this program by the end of the year.

------------------------------

*Unconference: The Future of Careers in Scholarship*

On November 5, the Ronin Institute hosted its first unconference at The
Democracy Center in Cambridge, MA. The theme of the event was "The Future
of Careers in Scholarship". The day kicked off with short talks by three
invited speakers, but the bulk of the meeting followed an "unconference"
format, where small-group discussions were organized around topics proposed
by the attendees.

Sonia Hall <https://twitter.com/SoniaHall> spoke about some of the current
patterns in academic job opportunities, including statistics collected by
the folks at the Future of Research <http://futureofresearch.org/>. Jessica
Ehinger <http://www.realworldphds.com/> described patterns and lessons she
has learned from her work with recent PhDs who are looking to pursue
alternative career paths. Raquell Holmes <http://improvscience.org/Raquell>
drew on her experience using improv to work with scientific groups to talk
about how we can build the types of communities we want to be a part of.

In the first round of group discussions, participants were encouraged to
think about the challenges of pursuing scholarly careers in today's
environment. Most of the discussions focused specifically on the challenges
facing people working outside of the traditional academic system. While the
various discussion groups were organized around different specific
questions, the conversations converged, with each group identifying the
same core set of needs. First, and most obviously, scholars need a degree
of financial support to allow them the time to pursue their work. Second,
scholars need access to intellectual resources: this includes things like
access to library resources, but equally important is participation in an
intellectual community, something that is easy to take for granted in a
traditional academic career.

In the second round of discussions, participants focused on brainstorming
solutions, or at least strategies, to address some of the challenges
identified in the first session. These discussions led to a number of
different interesting suggestions of ways to enhance the connections among
our community. We are already looking at how we can implement some of those
ideas.

The discussions were enthusiastic and vigorous, and we were thrilled with
how the entire event played out. In fact, many of the participants were not
ready to go home at the end of the day, and many of them were able to stick
around afterwards for dinner and then drinks.

We are assembling a more detailed report from the unconference, and that
will be posted to the website, so keep an eye out for that.

We were thrilled to have support from a number of generous sponsors,
allowing us to keep the event affordable for participants. We wanted, once
again, to thank them for helping us to make this event a reality.

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation <http://www.kauffman.org/> is a leader
in the promotion and understanding of entrepreneurship. They have asked us
to help to get the word out about an open position: they are currently
seeking a Research and Policy Director to lead an interdisciplinary
research program focused on understanding the conditions that best support
entrepreneurs and the policies that can foster those condition. It is a
great opportunity for a broad thinker, who could come from any of a number
of fields. To find out more, visit the announcement site
<http://www.kauffman.org/who-we-are/careers-at-the-kauffman-foundation/research-and-policy-director>.


The Society of Professional Consultants <http://www.spconsultants.org> is a
Boston-area organization that helps individuals to establish themselves as
independent consultants and helps established consultants to maintain
successful careers.

Ronin Institute Research Scholars Gordon Webster and Alex Lancaster are the
principals of Amber Biology <http://www.amberbiology.org>, working at the
intersection of biology and computer science. Their new book is *Python for
the Life Sciences*.

Ronin Institute Research Scholar Anne Thessen is the principal of The Data
Detektiv <http://datadetektiv.com>, which specializes in custom data
analysis and interference in the biological and geophysical domains.

Research Scholar and Board Member Steven Orzack is the founder of the Fresh
Pond Research Institute <http://freshpond.org>, which served as one of the
inspirational models for the Ronin Institute.

Check in with the Ronin Institute Blog
<http://ronininstitute.org/ronin-blog/> and Events page
<http://ronininstitute.org/events/> for information about future events. If
you or your organization is interested in pursuing the possibility of
putting together a joint event, reach out to us at info at ronininstitute.org.

------------------------------

*Ronin on Social Media*

If you're not already following it, you should know that the Ronin
Institute now has its own twitter account: @RoninInstitute
<https://twitter.com/RoninInstitute>, so check it out! You can also keep up
with the Ronin Institute Facebook
<https://www.facebook.com/Ronin-Institute-305791116124209/>, LinkedIn
<https://www.linkedin.com/company/ronin-institute>, ResearchGate
<https://www.researchgate.net/institution/Ronin_Institute>, & Academia.edu
<https://ronininstitute.academia.edu/>, and, yes, Google Plus
<https://plus.google.com/b/104760039078505343323/+RonininstituteOrg/posts>.

------------------------------

*Our Post-Election Message*

What follows is a letter that was sent out to all of the Ronin Institute
Research Scholars in the wake of the US Presidential election on November
8. It is an attempt to reiterate the values upon which the Institute was
founded and the expectations we should have for ourselves and each other.

Greetings Ronin!

On Tuesday, Donald Trump became the president-elect of the United States.
We won’t understand all of the consequences of that for some time. However,
it seems unlikely to mean anything good for scholarship. There is good
reason to worry that there will be negative impacts on funding, and it is
possible that certain types of research could come under more directed
attack. For some of you, there may be more personal and immediate dangers –
things lower down on the Maslow hierarchy than publication expenses.

The Ronin Institute is a 501(c)3, meaning that we are specifically
prohibited from lobbying for or against any candidate or piece of
legislation, so we can’t, *as an institution*, take explicitly political
positions. At the same time, we do have a certain set of values, values
that are clearly at odds with much of the rhetoric and actions of the Trump
campaign and its supporters. Given the way in which the violation of those
values – and of many, many societal norms – has been mainstreamed and
normalized in the media over the past several months, I think it is worth
reiterating our commitment to our two cardinal values here.

The first value is truth. This is the core value of all scholarship. It
means being careful and thorough in your research, and it means being clear
and honest in your communication. It also means being open to the
possibility of being wrong, and it means working every day to be less
wrong. As we move further into what seems to be a post-truth period in
politics, it is more important than ever for us to commit ourselves to
uncovering truths and sharing them with the world.

The second value is empathy. That means treating each other with kindness
and generosity, recognizing that other people may have goals and face
challenges that are different from your own. And that entails a genuine
commitment to diversity. No matter how much bigotry and harassment may
become (further) normalized and (further) institutionalized in the coming
months and years, they remain unacceptable here. And no, before you ask,
valuing tolerance does not mean that we have to be tolerant of intolerance.
If you think this sounds excessively naive or soft-headed or
stereotypically liberal, this may not be the right community for you.

I’m not saying you have to be perfect in execution every time with these
things. But you do have to be striving towards them in good faith.

Finally, I want to remind everyone that the Ronin Institute is a community,
created specifically so that we can help each other to pursue our
individual and collective goals. Normally, we think of this in the
scholarly domain – exchanging intellectual ideas, or brainstorming
solutions to problems like library access – but I want to encourage
everyone to think also in the human domain. This election has brought an
ugly part of our society out into the open, and for a lot of people, the
country feels less safe than it did a few days ago. Unfortunately, given
the incidents that have already occurred around the country, that feeling
is probably accurate. The fact is that many people, particularly minority
groups – both visible and invisible – are in a much more precarious
position now.

I know that many of you don’t know each other, but here’s the thing: I have
had at least some interaction with each of you, and we have a fantastic
group of folks here. I don’t know what kinds of support people are going to
need in the coming weeks, months, and years, but I do know that we have a
lot of people who will do what they can to provide that support. So, if
there is something that you or others in your community need, please ask.
If there is something you can provide, please offer. This, by the way,
would be a great use of that Slack account you’ve been ignoring!

Now let's get to work!

*Scientiam consecemus!*

Jon Wilkins
Ronin Institute


------------------------------

*Publications*

Here's a sampling of some of the recent work by the independent scholars of
the Ronin Institute:

      *Articles & Chapters*

Bayoumi R, De Fanti S, Sazzini M, Giuliani C, Quagliariello A, Bortolini E,
Boattini A, Al-Habori M, Al-Zubairi AS, Rose JI, & Romeo G (2016) Positive
selection of lactase persistence among people of Southern Arabia
<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.23072/full> *American
Journal of Physical Anthropology* 161:676-684.

Bittar TB, Berger SA, Birsa LM, Walters TL, Thompson ME, Spencer RGM, Mann
EL, Stubbins A, Frischer ME, & Brandes JA (2016) Seasonal dynamics of
dissolved, particulate and microbial components of a tidal
saltmarsh-dominated estuary under contrasting levels of freshwater
discharge.
<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272771416303018>
*Estuarine,
Coastal and Shelf Science* 182:72-85.

Dent CL, Humby T, Lewis K, Plagge A, Fischer-Colbrie R, Wilkins JF,
Wilkinson LS, & Isles AR (2016) Impulsive choices in mice lacking imprinted
Nesp55. <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gbb.12316/full> *Genes,
Brain and Behavior* 15:693-701.

Desai S (2016) Do pulsar radio fluxes violate the inverse-square law.
<http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10509-016-2726-z> *Astrophysics
and Space Science* 361:1-9.

Desai S & Liu DW (2016) A search for evidence of solar rotation in
Super-Kamiokande solar neutrino dataset
<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927650516300834>
*Astroparticle
Physics* 82:86-92.

Fischer DT, Still CJ, Ebert CM, Baguskas SA, & Park Williams A (2016) Fog
drip maintains dry season ecological functionin a California coastal pine
forest. <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecs2.1364/full>
*Ecosphere* 7:e01364.

Gandy L, Gumm J, Fertig B, Kennish MJ, Chavan S, Thessen A, Marchionni L,
Xia X, Shankrit S, & Fertig EJ (2016) Synthesizer: Expediting synthesis
studies from context-free data with natural language processing.
<http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/05/16/053629.abstract> *bioRxiv*
053629.

Kennedy TJ & Sundberg C (2017) International Perspectives and
Recommendations on Equity and Gender: Development Studies in Science
Education. <http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-32351-0_15>
*Science
Education: A Global Perspective* (pp.295-311) Springer International
Publishing.

Landeen EL, Muirhead CA, Wright L, Meiklejohn CD, & Presgraves DC (2016) Sex
Chromosome-wide Transcriptional Suppression and COmpensatory Cis-Regulatory
Evolution Mediate Gene Expression in the Drosophila Male Germline.
<http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002499>
*PLoS
Biology* 14:e1002499.

Patterson D, Mozzherin D, Shorthouse D, & Thessen A (2016) Challenges with
using names to link digital biodiversity information.
<http://bdj.pensoft.net/article_preview.php?id=8080> *Biodiversity Data
Journal* 4:e8080.

Sapp SGH, Rascoe LN, Wilkins PP, Handali S, Gray EB, Eberhard M, Woodhall
DM, Montgomery SP, Bailey KL, Lankau EW, & Yabsley MJ (2016) *Baylisascaris
procyonis* Roundworm Seroprevalence among Wildlife Rehabilitators, United
States and Canada, 2012-2015.
<http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/22/12/pdfs/16-0467.pdf> *Emerging
Infectious Diseases* 22:2128-2131.

Youn H, Sutton L, Smith E, Moore C, Wilkins JF, Maddieson I, Croft W, &
Bhattacharya T (2016) On the universal structure of human lexical semantics.
<http://www.pnas.org/content/113/7/1766.short> *Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences* 113:1766-1771.


      *Opinion and Reviews*

Lancaster A (2016) Given frustrations with academic structures, how can we
build a more human-centered open science?
<http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/67356/> *Impact
of Social Sciences Blog* 2016 Jul 26.


------------------------------

*About the Ronin Institute*

The Ronin Institute is dedicated to building an alternative model of
academic scholarship outside of the traditional university system. To learn
more, visit us at http://ronininstitute.org or send us email
<info at ronininstitute.org>.

We depend on public support. If you are in a position to do so, please
consider making a donation <http://ronininstitute.org/donate/>. The Ronin
Institute is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, so your donation will be tax
deductible to the full extent allowed by law.

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