
Author: griffey
Jason Griffey is the Executive Director of the Open Science Hardware Foundation. Prior to joining OSHF, he was the Director of Strategic Initiatives at NISO, where he worked to identify new areas of the information ecosystem where standards expertise was useful and needed. Prior to joining NISO in 2019, Jason ran his own technology consulting company for libraries, has been both an Affiliate at metaLAB and a Fellow and Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and was an academic librarian in roles ranging from reference and instruction to Head of Library IT and a tenured professor at the University of TN at Chattanooga.
Jason has written extensively on technology and libraries, including multiple books and a series of full-periodical issues on technology topics, most recently a chapter in Library 2035 - Imagining the Next Generation of Libraries by Rowman & Littlefield. His latest full-length work Standards - Essential Knowledge, co-authored with Jeffery Pomerantz, was published by MIT Press in March 2025.
He has spoken internationally on topics such as artificial intelligence & machine learning, the future of technology and libraries, decentralization and the Blockchain, privacy, copyright, and intellectual property. A full list of his publications and presentations can be found on his CV.
He is one of eight winners of the Knight Foundation News Challenge for Libraries for the Measure the Future project (http://measurethefuture.net), an open hardware project designed to provide actionable use metrics for library spaces. He is also the creator and director of The LibraryBox Project (http://librarybox.us), an open source portable digital file distribution system.
Long time, no blog
Wow…didn’t realize that it had been days since I’ve been on here. Shows you how busy we’ve been. In the last few days we’ve been to Chatanooga twice, to Winchester and to Tullahoma. We’re trying to get ready to go to Mexico, get our license and registration for our car, and get all the other little things about a new place figured out. So far, we’ve found the WalMart (both of ’em), the Lowe’s, and the closest two movie theaters.
We’re getting there.
From the Sewanee Messenger:
“Chief Jim Parrott reports that the department patrolled 4,937 miles; investigated one automobile accident; no arrests were made; one Speeding Citation and four warnings were issued; and seven dogs were picked up for the pound.”
That’s for the entire month of June.
🙂

Today we took some time and hiked a tiny bit of the perimeter trail next to Morgan’s Steep at Sewanee. This is pic from a random stream that we crossed…whatever this place lacks in consumer comforts it more than makes up for in sheer beauty.
The area around the Domain is just amazing…cliffs and streams and waterfalls and amazing flora and fauna. Yesterday we ate dinner with my sister and brother-in-law on our screen porch while we watched two deer graze along the edge of the woods of our backyard.
…there is internet at the Griffey-Sandlin household. Expect more posts (hopefully complete with pictures!) soon.
In other news, I think the laptop is dead. I re-applied thermal compound to the heatsink, and checked all the “overheating” issues, and that’s definitely NOT it. It’s not software (I booted from a CD, still happened). My guess now is that something on the ‘board got screwed up somehow. Time to make a call to the insurance company and see if this is covered….
And the fun goes on…
I throw myself at the tech help knowledge of the readership of the blog. Here’s the situation:
Unpack laptop, plug laptop in, laptop works fine.
Listen to music on laptop all night, since it’s the only entertainment we have.
Thunderstorms all night.
Next day, laptop won’t stay booted: it boots, and lets you do somethings, then after 3-10 minutes of running, freezes, the screen goes wonky (typically a bunch of horizontal flickering lines) and it dies. Just powers down…no warning, nothin’.
My rough diagnosis: it acts like it’s overheating. I’m not sure why that would be the case suddenly (is there any chance of elevation effecting it??). I removed the fans and heatsink, and there’s practically no heatsink paste left. My brother in law is bringing a tube for me to use over the weekend, so I’ll clean and reapply that. The really strange thing is that when it works, it’s perfect…nothing seems wrong. Then BOOM, dead.
Ideas? It’s a Sager laptop, Pentium 4 1.5GhZ. ANY ideas/help would be appreciated.
We made it!
So we’re here…we rolled in at 10:30 or so, made up the air mattress, and went to bed. The kitties are freaked, but Hootie seems to be handling it ok. Cola, on the other hand, is losing her freaking mind. She’s spent most of the day hiding under the sink in the bathroom.
We can’t officially check in to the house, because the person we need to speak with is on vacation. So we were officially told by the housing office to “Move in and enjoy it.” The only problem is that we don’t have keys, and we haven’t paid for anything. 🙂 Guess that makes us squatters in the house, right? That, plus our stuff can’t be locked up…anytime we leave, the house stays unlocked. This didn’t seem unusual to anyone but us, though, so I’m guessing we’re ok.
Hope everyone is doing well!!
Goodbye
Dear Chapel Hill,
At first, I was unsure about our relationship. You spurned me twice (once for the Masters and once for PhD program in philosophy), each time the disappointment weighing heavily on me. But finally you embraced me, and all was forgiven. You’ve gotten me addicted to so many things…Cosmic Burritos, Inside Scoop ice cream, and the wonder of pulled pork barbeque (Allen and Son’s, you’ll be missed). But overall, it’s the people, the place, the school and the weather. It truly is the Southern Part of Heaven.
In the end, leaving is bittersweet. We go on to amazing things, but the time here has been unbelievably good.
So…’til later, Chapel Hill. Maybe we’ll be back one day.
Jason
Tired of Cardboard
Completely and utterly tired of it. We’ve got more cardboard in the house than any other material right now…boxes on boxes on boxes.
But Tuesday is the day.
Then the unpacking starts. Ugh.
Blog Update
Just a note that I just upgraded to WordPress 1.2 (which is still a beta version, but very stable). So if anyone notices any wierdness or broken links or anything…Let me know.