We’re looking to fill two (unpaid) spots on escarp’s editorial panel in the next two weeks. The time commitment is rarely more than 2 hours a week.

The basics:
1.) editors must be able to receive submissions via SMS 24 hours a day.
2.) editors must be able to respond within 12 hours via SMS.
3.) editing is done collaboratively via group SMS; we don’t use the group for chatter but editors should expect SMS volume commensurate with a 5-person conversation.
4.) editors are required to have a Twitter account.

To request the (brief) application packet, send a DM to @escarp on Twitter with your email address. The application will consist of a brief written questionnaire and an interview via SMS. No resume/CV necessary. We’ll be accepting applications until midnight EDT, August 12th, 2011.

A small issue had kept our update scripts from running for a few days, but the site should be back to updating properly.

We launched a new layout this February, but there were a few things we wanted to do that we couldn’t at the time, due to some limitations with the Twitter API. While some of our API wishlist is still outstanding, we’ve implemented reply, retweet and favorite buttons on each posting. We’ll probably continue to experiment with the placement of these as we review and implement other changes in the coming weeks. Let us know what you think.

Meera’s piece, published on May 10th, got a solid review from David Backer of FictionDaily.org today.

ilikeartalot:

maria zaikina

But, more importantly, our condolences to the family of the donor.

@escarp turned two, today (at 10:34:15 AM CST, to be precise). It’s been quite the journey. 

Work on escarp began when the clouds opened briefly about two weeks before Spring Break, on March 3rd in Lubbock, Texas and went live from a friend’s dining-room table in Austin, Texas (Thanks, Beth (aka MEGABETH!)) It was mostly coincidence, of course, that the site launched in the middle of SXSW (we certainly don’t have the cash to attend in any official manner), though we did manage to fail horribly to catch The Cool Kids at an off-site show in Austin (but succeed thoroughly in finding 6th Street.)

In the two years since we’ve grown from a one-person operation to a five-person panel currently spread across four states. For all we’ve grown, though, we’re always limited by our ability to find passionate individuals to help out. We’d like to use the occasion, this anniversary, to test the waters. If you’d like to be involved, drop us a line through Tumblr or Twitter. Let us know what you’d like to bring to the project.

infoneer-pulse:

“People just felt gobsmacked,” said Anne Silvers Lee, the chief of the materials management division of the Free Library of Philadelphia, which has temporarily stopped buying HarperCollins e-books. “We want e-books in our collections, our customers are telling us they want e-books, so I want to be able to get e-books from all the publishers. I also need to do it in a way that is not going to be exorbitantly expensive.”

But some librarians said the change, however unwelcome, had ignited a public conversation about e-books in libraries that was long overdue. While librarians are pushing for more e-books to satisfy demand from patrons, publishers, with an eye to their bottom lines, are reconsidering how much the access to their e-books should be worth.

» via The New York Times

A PC Gamer review of a non-traditional game focused on telling a story and not on accomplishing objectives.