I just signed a petition calling for Norwegian universities to use research expertise on AI when deciding how to implement it, rather than having decisions be made mostly administratively. , If you are a researcher in Norway, please read it and sign it if you agree – and share with anyone else who might be interested. The petition was written by three researchers at UiT: Maria Danielsen (a philosopher who completed her PhD in 2025 on AI and ethics, including discussions of art and working life), Knut Ørke (Norwegian as a second language), and Holger Pötzsch (a professor of media studies with many years of research on digital media, video games, disruption, and working life, among other topics). This is not about preventing researchers from exploring AI methods in their research. It is about not uncritically accepting the hype that everyone must use AI everywhere without critical reflection. It is about not introducing Copilot as the default option in word processors, or training PhD candidates to believe they will fall behind if they do not use AI when writing articles, without proper academic discussion. Changes like these should be knowledge-based and discussed academically, not merely decided administratively, because they alter the epistemological foundations of research. Maria wrote to me a couple of months ago because she had read my opinion piece in Aftenposten in which I called for a strong brake on the use of language models in knowledge work. She was part of a committee tasked with developing UiT’s AI strategy and was concerned because there was so much hype and so few members of the committee with actual expertise in AI. I fully support the petition. There are probably some good uses for AI in research, but the uncritical, hype-driven insistence that we must simply adopt it everywhere is highly risky. There are many researchers in Norway with strong expertise in AI, language, ethics, working life, and culture. We must make use of this expertise. This is also partly about respect for research in the humanities, social sciences, psychology, and law. Introducing AI at universities and university colleges is not merely a technical issue, and perhaps not even primarily a technical one. It concerns much more: philosophy of science, methodological reflection, epistemology, writing, publishing, the working environment, and more. […]
Eirik
Very valid point, Jill. Part of what I write in my MT blog is also work-related, and I would think this is the case for a lot of academics and free-lancers. Which is why I’m planning a switch as I write. I was frustrated enough with the sluggishness, the bugs (the logout-on-save bug, especially) and the lack of anti-spam measures (MT-Blacklist doesn’t work for me) _before_ the announcement.
I suspect the Trotts are moving away from the mass market anyway. After all, they’re charging a pretty hefty fee for a product which can be very difficult to install for your average user – for $70 most people would demand “download-and-click” usability. The key sentence, I think, is “full-featured platform for development and customization”. Too bad, for a while it really looked like MT would become the de facto standard for high-powered individual blogging.
Jill
I think the movement away from a mass market is deliberate, and that TypePad is supposed to be the mass market thing.
Reading the commercial licence it’s clear that this weblog would need a commercial licence, due to the indirect earning of money, so it would cost me $199. Also the fact that it’s hosted at my university probably makes it commercial too, even though I’d be paying out of my own pocket. I don’t earn enough money off it to want to pay that.
Ah well. Don’t upgrade or switch platforms are my choices. I wonder whether WordPress gets as badly spammed as Movable Type does?
Mark Bernstein
I’m no fan of “non-commercial” clauses myself, but you’re being much to strict. Almost ANY conceivable use of a weblog tool could, after all, result in economic benefit, just as any public act might result in a commercial benefit.
The intent must be that you need a commercial license if (a) you charge people to read the weblog, or (b) the weblog is part of a commercial effort.
I’m not a lawyer, MT is a competitor of my employer, objects appear smaller in mirror,
Jill
I wonder whether Google ads would count as commercial?
I’d probably never buy anything if I really read the licences. Sigh.
Anonymous
Ummm. MT 3.0 is currently only a developer’s edition release. Not meant for the ordinary user…
HÂkon Styri
Most of all, the release of MT 3.0 appears to be an exercise in bad market communication. That’s sad, because that also indicates that Six Apart also lacks some understanding of their users. Mena’s trying to correct that, but it walks and talks like good old damage control.
Apart from that, I believe Jill’s got the point regarding TypePad. Fiddling with MT installation isn’t for the mass market user. By limiting bandwidth and storage, TypePad can offer a subscription with unlimited number of blogs and authors. I guess Six Apart discovered that hosting blogs can be quite profitable.
(The reason using a hosting service appeals to me is that by hosting a few thousand blogs a bloghost like TypePad can implement really efficient spam control.)
However, I cannot see there’s a big issue here. We need better tools for both enterprise and academic blogs. Six Apart probably created a market opportunity for other entrepreneurs by their MT 3.0 release. I cannot see any reason at all for complaining about that. It’s a “good thing” in my book.
Frank
As the anonymous commenter noticed, the current release is a developer release. Wait for the regular release and see what you think. From what I’ve read, this release is very rough indeed.
As for your site being commercial Jill, that’s overinterpreting the “non-commercial” clause imho. Gizmodo and Gawker are commercial. Being an academic means we’re not in this for the money anyway and I’d like to think that getting invited for a talk or what have you happens primarily on basis of your academic merits, even if the organisers happened to find you through your weblog. It’s not like you’re getting rich from those talkes (yet… 🙂
At least, that’s the way I’m going to read the non-commercial license if I happen to stay with MT in the case that the general release of MT3 manages to blow me away (slight chance I’d recon at this point).
bicyclemark
I might be a little late getting into the discussion… but I’m still not convinced of MT’s superiority to say.. blogger. I don’t see why blogger blogs can’t be every bit as dynamic and high-quality as MT. But I’m willing to listen.
Jill
Blogger can’t do trackbacks. I want trackbacks.
Otherwise, I really like blogger. It’s great. Lets you do lots, and it’s extremely easy. Now there are even built in comments. Cool!
Matt
Looking for bew blogware? Have you seen this comparison: http://www.asymptomatic.net/blogbreakdown.htm