9/11

Loose Change: 9/11
Final Cut

Kids and Internet

Where the Action is: You Tube Taken Over by Users on All Fours.

It should be no surprise that the Internet is where the future of entertainment, news, and information is exchanged. Despite Rupert Murdock's miscalculation of it, we have known, those of us who are aware of what is happening, that the format is getting better and better for such exchanges. But the group to watch are the group which is not even old enough to vote or drive a car.

According to a new study from Nielsen Online, the largest number of tykes and preteens go to YouTube for video (or 4.1 million viewers aged 2 to 11), followed by the Disneychannel.com at a distant second, with 1.3 million viewers in that age bracket for the month of April. MySpace.com, NickJr, and Google Video also showed up on that list.

Their habits could signal TV's future. On average, the kids watched 51 video streams from home during April, spending almost two hours on video clips. That usage outstrips the average of nearly 75 million adults who regularly view video clips at sites like ESPN.com and CNN.com. On average in April, adults of voting age watched 44 video streams, for about 1 hour and 40 minutes of their time.

We see this happening in the libraries too. Many questions arise from this, but the big ones are meeting the needs of these information consumers, and also creating zones which are safe for users who are not always capable of distinguishing between what is safe and what is dangerous. I have spoken before about You Tube in the past. Its a great resource for educators and librarians. In the hands of people who want to put it to use for educational purposes and light entertainment it is great. As a source of independent learning it is also a wonderful free for all.

It has problems though. The regulation of offensive material is handled in an uneven manner, and often Children can come across material that is a result of poor search terms. The results can lead a child to content which sometimes contains graphic depictions of violence, obscene or profane language, and even adult sexual situations.

Librarians, particularly library management need to consider how a child may be exposed to this if left unsupervised. I think that of course a lot of this depends on what is happening at home, and for my discussion it is out of bounds. However, The fact that a whole generation has almost now matured into adulthood on line, it is one of the most important issues facing educators librarians and parents across America.

The following are some sites that concerned parents and the like may wish to visit for resources:

http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/foryoungpeople/youngpeopleparents/especiallyyoungpeople.cfm

http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Child_Safety/

http://www.fosi.org/resources/parents/

http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=7978

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/family/default.mspx

http://www.nch.org.uk/information/index.php?i=209

http://onguardonline.gov/socialnetworking.html

These are a few of the many wonderful options for getting a head start on the topic. It is a community thing. Everyone is familiar with the notion of the village raising the child. It simply means that we all have a role in making public places safe for all age groups. Freedom comes with a great deal of responsibility. For example, if you are in the library and see a child unattended then inform the staff of this. If you are looking at web sites in a public place, library or otherwise, please consider the needs of others. If it has content that is not safe for a child then you probably shouldn't be viewing it in a public space. Common sense, the kind mom taught you will tell you when you are exceeding your rights. The whole point is that public space belongs to the PUBLIC.

I welcome any comments on this post. I am an uncle with several really cool nephews and nieces. So I do spend a lot of time thinking about the world I am leaving behind for them.

Any thoughts?


The story mentioned in this article:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9963543-7.html?tag=nefd.top

See What Happens When You Don't Read Books

Don't Try this at Your Library

Shush!

Grumpy Patrons: a Ongoing Lesson

Modern libraries
11:01 - 08 May 2008

SIR, - I am writing in response to the letter from Norman Hart (Herts Advertiser, April 24) concerning noise in the Maltings Library, St Albans. In responding to the changing needs and culture of the community we serve, we are aware that sometimes the library is noisy and this may not suit everyone. Ultimately however, the library is there to serve the community as a whole, which includes an increasingly diverse range of interests and needs, so part of our job is to try to strike a healthy balance between them.

On Tuesday mornings we have two lively and increasingly-popular Baby Rhyme Time sessions, followed by Storytime on Tuesday afternoons. These are provided to encourage children to establish the reading habit from an early age - and admittedly their enthusiasm can make these sessions rather noisy. Apart from these times, during the rest of our 65 hours of opening each week the children's area is for reading and toys are not provided. We are aware that some of our users prefer not to visit during these activities so our suggestion that Mr Hart avoid these times was meant to be helpful rather than "impertinent".


The issue of noise in the modern public library goes along with its changing environment, which is directly influenced by the needs of it's patrons. Libraries must compete with bookstores and cyber cafes for patrons.

The common complaint that I often hear is music (Ipods and Mp3 players) and cellphones. Next is inappropriate use of computers for watching videos or looking at pictures that are offensive to others. Another big problem is how to best deal with the homeless. The open policy is that anyone may come in and use the library so long as they do not disturb other patrons. And last, and most disturbing, patron sex in bathrooms.

Some of these are easy to solve. Most people will be embarrassed and put that phone down or turn their players off. Most people are reasonable.

The second set are those problems which cause direct and harmful environments. Patrons who look at adult videos or who have sex in public places are a threat to other patrons. This is especially dangerous for parents and their children. Direct steps must be taken and kept in check to prevent any incidents in which another child or adult patron may be harmed.

No librarian questions these. Most librarians must, however, be careful in how they deal with such issues. Libraries may easily become libel for injuries or harassment of patrons accused of such violations of the library policies. What some patrons forget is that patrons guilty of offenses have civil and legal rights too. That means the library could get taken to court.

Large libraries can often afford to have full time security who are specially trained in this. I don't know what library students are being taught these days in school, but when I was a student it was discussed, but we never learned what steps to take in handling circumstances.

When I read this article I shrugged. Some people have no idea of the complexities of these issues, and it is unfair of patrons to expect the typically under maned reference desk. The idea of complaining about a children's story time makes me laugh though. Come on, do everyone a favor and save it for a really big bitch.

Any thoughts?


http://www.hertsad.co.uk/content/herts/postbag/story.aspx?brand=HADOnline&category=Postbag&tBrand=HertsCambsOnline&tCategory=PostbagHAD&itemid=WEED08%20May%202008%2011%3A01%3A50%3A253

Cary Your Books for You

Digital Options

InfoTech: OCLC Offering Long-Term Digital Archive Storage
Josh Hadro -- Library Journal, 4/30/2008 9:42:00 AM

Provides offsite managed storage of digital archive “master files” and the services necessary to keep libraries’ data safe in original state.

Program is fully managed and remotely hosted backup for original digital content.
Files can be uploaded directly into the storage servers via Connexion.

Digital archives may solve the problem of scarcity and delicacy inherent with many physical archives, but that doesn’t mean that lasting preservation isn’t a major concern. OCLC last week announced a new version of its Digital Archive service for the “long-term storage of libraries’ digital collections,” providing offsite managed storage of digital archive “master files” and the relevant services necessary to keep libraries’ data safe in its original state.

Unlike other backup and storage options, such as the open source and membership-funded LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe), OCLC’s program is a fully managed and remotely hosted backup for original digital content. The OCLC Digital Archive includes monthly reports that verify file integrity. Hoping to fit into the existing workflow of many digital archives, the service enables files to be uploaded directly into the storage servers via Connexion, the popular OCLC cataloging interface integrated with WorldCat, as well as through CONTENTdm’s digital collections management software for libraries.

The story didn't state the costs of such back up storage.

Any thoughts?

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6556213.html

A Fistful of Pisses Me Off!

More Media Please?

LEELA

Didn't you have ads in the 20th century?

FRY

Well, sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio. And
in magazines and movies and at ball games and on buses and
milk cartons and t-shirts and written in the sky. But not in
dreams. No siree!

--Futurama: A Fishful of Dreams

I found this editorial on the tech side and thought it might be worth noting. It has the realistic ring of today's market with Google perched on the hills of Mount Parnassus and blowing all other search engine hopefuls out of the playing field. But ever the cynic, I wonder if it is good news for the people.

Is it an American super size me philosophy that drives the market? Is more always better? I wonder about that. As recent studies have demonstrated, not only are Google patrons getting less quality information, they are not learning how to search and distinguish the good from the bad and the ugly.

I Google myself, but come from a time when papers were written with outlines and index cards, and it was "Shh!" in the library. I know that time has come and passed out of memory, but I think it is librarians that will save their bacon.

In the editorial the notion is to focus on making Yahoo what it once was:

So how does Yahoo move forward? It needs to rebrand itself an Internet media company, quit chasing Google on Web search, and get damn good at selling brand advertising to Madison Avenue once again. And it has to get it done before Google figures out how to turn the creative ad process over to robots. Does technology play a role in that future? Of course. But the emphasis should be on technology that makes ad sales possible, not ad sales that make the technology possible.

The idea of more corporate sponsorship of the Internet and its searching options sends a chill up my spine. That means the options go where the money is. That is not a democratic conception. It is capitalist mojo of a generation who seem to not understand the marketing of almost every aspect of their lives. But the emphasis should be on technology that makes ad sales possible, not ad sales that make the technology possible. This is a very vague and odd statement. It may suggest an agreement where add revenues profit the interest of a company, but I doubt it comes away so favorably for the average person on line. Case in point, the popularity of You Tube for a long time was that it was a space that was unfettered by commercial bull shit. Now almost two years after Googles purchase of it there are ads everywhere. It has taken away that little corner of ours and turned it over to the snake oil salesmen and hawkers of Madison Avenue. We don't need more ads. We need less!

This isn't going to help anyone other than stock holders of Yahoo. It only makes Googles cold icy grip on Virtual searchers tighter. I was relieved that Microsoft resisted the royal commands of Mr. Gates and have held out for their own. I don't think its too late to ever change things. Much good can come from mistakes if one chooses to pause and learn from them. As a librarian I would be depressed to think my collection is restricted to one or two books. The options for powerful and competitive search engines should be no different. I want there to be a crowded market. I want patrons to have options, so they can choose, and choose wisely.

Any thoughts?

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9936734-7.html?tag=nefd.lede

Tah-Da!

New ALA President

Camila Alire Elected 2009–10 ALA President
Lynn Blumenstein & Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 5/2/2008

Winner has background in academic libraries Stripling, Stoffle, Kunzel lead race for Council
Larger turnout, thanks to electronic voting.

In an election marked by a growing number of participants, Camila Alire (l.), dean emeritus of the libraries of both the University of New Mexico and Colorado State University, won election as 2009–10 American Library Association (ALA) president with 8,956 votes, or 55.8% of the total. J. Linda Williams, coordinator of library media services for Anne Arundel County public schools in Annapolis, MD, got.7102 votes. Alire will become president-elect at the American Library Association annual conference next month, and will take the top spot the following year. In an interview in LJ in April, Alire stressed advocacy training for librarians "back home," among other things she supports.

Well lets see how this goes. Advocacy training aside (a good idea) what are some of her other top priorities? How about job shortage? How about facing the new president and promoting more tax allocation for funding public libraries. How about reversing some of the damage that Bush inflicted on American libraries?

I know I am leaving a lot out.

Any thoughts?

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6557081.html?desc=topstory

DOA

Yahoo and Microsoft End Negotiations


Microsoft officially pulled its offer for Yahoo on Saturday, confirming an earlier report by CNET News.com.

In a letter to Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer confirmed that Microsoft was willing to offer $33 a share, but that Yahoo was holding out for at least $37 a share, or $5 billion more than Microsoft was prepared to spend. In the letter, Ballmer also says he is ruling out a direct offer to shareholders.

"This approach would necessarily involve a protracted proxy contest and eventually an exchange offer," Ballmer said. "Our discussions with you have led us to conclude that, in the interim, you would take steps that would make Yahoo undesirable as an acquisition for Microsoft."

Not a big surprise. This was dead on arrival.

Any thoughts?

http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9935100-56.html?tag=nefd.lede

SSH!!!

The Japanese are Ahead of the Curb in Library Fun

Razor's Edge

Your Mama Said there Would be Days Like This...

Like here in the States, the UK has its share of terrorist threats. Like the librarians in America UK librarians share many of the same codes of ethics. In particular to safe guard the privacy of its patrons. Or in the words of John Pateman, head of libraries in Lincolnshire, UK when asked what he thought of turning over records over to local government and police, he said: “It concerns me. Public libraries are one of the last public spaces where people don’t have to justify themselves” .

I can't think of a better way of phrasing it. Because despite the transformation of the library to a quasi virtual/physical space of information exchange, we tend to think of us providing a harbor in the storms raging in the world around us.

Librarians in the UK are asked not to stuff the shelves with materials that could be useful to a terrorist planning a bombing or other acts of violence. But that sort of policy runs contrary to the open source principles that librarians are trained in. Librarians create opportunities for their patrons to come into a safe and clean environment to explore and learn (certainly not to harbor terrorists or incite or encourage acts of violence) without fear of censorship or invasion of privacy. Most librarians, for example may know that some of their patrons may not be honest people, but its not in their job discription to discriminate. Naturally we want people to be safe, but we want people to be free too, if we can help it.

The Patriot Act here in America has been a challenge to many professional administrators and their staffs. Its intentions are to safe guard the American public against foreign aggression and acts of terrorists, but many have pointed out the extremes violate human rights of privacy. Mr. Bush is not very popular now. We are now on the early stages of a new election and I follow it with great interest. Most certainly the legacy of Bush's war and politics, and economics will be with us for some time. For example in a recent New York times article on the national debt here in the States, written by Larry Rohter and Michael Cooper, the Tax Policy Center in Washington D.C. found that all three candidates will increase the current national debt. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/us/politics/27fiscal.html

Librarians seem to be forced to walk a razors edge of politics, ethics, and patron rights. The questions are broad and dangerous. A smart librarian keeps their politics out of their work place, however, because they should have nothing to do with how we serve the public. There are librarians who support the efforts of the current administration, and then there are those (like myself) who are disgusted and horrified by Bush's policies.

It would be unrealistic, however, that a November election will radically change the scene. I wish it were other than that. So the best one can do is stand for your beliefs, and live for a better tomorrow.

Any thoughts?

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/57851-anti-terror-threat-to-librarian-role.html

Software Blues

New Tools and Tool Users

The marketing of Vista operating system has had its ups and downs. Hard core XP users often rail about the bugs that have not been, or are now being worked out. The success of it has been marred with all sorts of promises and warnings from tech geeks. Be warned...and then the Geek squad at the Best Buy sell you with admonishments of being behind in security, service, and updates. We are now rolling past the last few package updates for XP and the service is for this is being dwindled away. I have a friend who claims it is motivating sales of desk tops and that is why you are being forced to update.

I know when I first looked at Windows Vista I was lost. I am comfortable with the configurations of my Windows XP Professional. It was difficult, no, it was time consuming to learn the new layout of the Vista. But that was laziness on my part.

The problem of perception is that naysayers will delight and pulling apart the program and its compatibility issues. Yet these are often the same people who know better. They know that a beta release has compatibility issues and bugs. It is part of the territory of updating ones software. But its a hardship that everyone who wishes to be current must suffer through.

But there is one area where the company has struggled to gain ground: how Vista is perceived. "There's certainly a perceptual gap there," Mike Nash, a Microsoft corporate vice president, said in an interview Thursday. He pointed to Microsoft research that shows that 86 percent of those actually using Vista would recommend it to a friend.

The numbers are going up according to Microsoft officials and that doesn't surprise me. Its human nature to bark a little and then settle down and lump it.

I wonder how taxing it is to staff in libraries whenever they must undergo a change in software. Recently here in Chicago the public library launched a new web site. It has some problems but overall I like it. I talked to a librarian who complained of searching for journal articles on it. I did not find problems with it. But how often do librarians undergo that destabilizing transformation of their tools, and what are the strains do it cause on a staff? I would like to read some studies on this.

The inevitability of change is constant. So all a person can do is perhaps develop a better philosophy and grin and bear it. After all, its what we are given to work with and we are professionals.

Any thoughts?


http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9933555-56.html?tag=nefd.lede

Every Book in The World?

Scanning and Scanning and Scanning and...

Scanning world's every book means turning many, many pages
By NATASHA ROBINSON – 4 days ago

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — In a dimly lit back room on the second level of the University of Michigan library's book-shelving department, Courtney Mitchel helped a giant desktop machine digest a rare, centuries-old Bible.

Mitchel is among hundreds of librarians from Minnesota to England making digital versions of the most fragile of the books to be included in Google Inc.'s Book Search, a portal that will eventually lead users to all the estimated 50 million to 100 million books in the world.
The manually scanning — at up to 600 pages a day — is much slower than Google's regular process.

"It's monotonous," the 24-year-old said. Then she knit her career hopes into the work.

"But it's still something that I'm learning about — how to interact with really old materials and working with digital imaging, which is relevant to art history."

Its going to take a very long time to copy these works too. The accessibility is still a problem. Unfortunately searching one after downloading it is cumbersome. But then again it is there and can be looked at.

In Chicago we have the Newberry Library, which is famous for its open door policy. It is easy to make an appointment to come in and look at the rare manuscripts. The efforts of Google should be applauded on the one hand and skeptically watched on the other. Data is something this behemoth cannot get enough of, but the quality, storage, indexing and retrieval of that information still has a bit of a ways to go. Using Google Scholar is still not as effective as a card catalogue. I do have faith that the right people will get it right one day. Its an important issue because students today always Google it first, and in many cases that is all they do. Educators and librarians, administrators and public officials should all focus on this. I don't think attention spans are getting longer.

Any thoughts?

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jMr8wAZqhesLHmGt1TW9jtUT04EgD908M3780

Cheap cheap cheap...cheap cheap cheap

Patrons Are Cheap

At LAPL, Proposed $1 Fee for Holds Appears Dead
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 4/23/2008
Fee was discontinued in 1994
More than 900 emails in protest
Library director “overwhelmed” by citizen concern

The Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) proposed reinstating a $1 charge to reserve or place a hold on books, but citizen resistance has apparently killed the plan. While the Library Commission on March 20 approved a new Fines and Fees Schedule, to go into effect July 1, it is expected to approve a revised schedule this Friday, without the fee. Activists and preservationists Kim Cooper and Richard Schave, who regularly use LAPL resources for historic research, created the saveLAPL web site and generated nearly 900 email messages asking the library not to impose the holds fee. (The web site also encouraged readers to contribute to LAPL, given the library’s effort to help with the city’s $400 million shortfall.)

The campaign worked. “I am overwhelmed by the passion and concerns for the value of library services in our city expressed by hundreds of people in the e-mails," wrote City Librarian Fontayne Holmes. "Had we anticipated this kind of a response, we would not have made the recommendation for the fee in the first place. We really thought that we were reinstituting a library holds fee that we previously had for decades in the library system, a fee that was fifty cents when it was discontinued in 1994." (Of the 31 library systems LAPL surveyed in southern California, 12 currently charge 50 cents to $1 for a hold.)

“As a result, I am submitting a report to the Board of Library Commissioners, asking them to revise the Library Fines and Fees Schedule to rescind the $1.00 ‘holds’ and to increase the overdue book fine from 25 cents to 30 cents," Holmes wrote. "The increase in the overdue fines should produce revenue equal or better than the revenue from the 'holds' fee. Cooper and Schave commented, “You have been heard! Keep watching this site for more news of threats to the Library as the City budget is worked out, and ways you can speak up about how important a well funded Library is to the people of Los Angeles.”

I am posting this as an example of how cheap people can be. Perhaps the proposed dollar fee should have been halved, but still library patrons are cheap. I am sick of the starbucks cups left in the stacks. If you have money for two or three mocha half cafes then you can pop for a dollar on the odd chance you go for a book rather than your usual netflix or American Idol.

I often think Americans assume that libraries simply spring up out of the concrete already staffed and payed for. Granted, we cannot expect a totally free ride, but librarians bust their butts for nothing most of the time.

Wake up America, you are rapidly slipping into a pit of ignorance and corporate branding of your brains. Sacrifice that high calorie muffin and step over to the library one afternoon with your kids. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Good luck America. You're going to need it.

Any thoughts?

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6554386.html

Wow, I Built a Way Back Machine and Look What Happened!

Well, I Refuse to do Any Kind of Retro Sweating

Update on Microsoft Bid on Yahoo

Microsoft maintains tough line on Yahoo

Posted by Ina Fried

With Steve Ballmer having issued sharp words on Yahoo across Europe this week, it was not a surprise to see Microsoft take a hard line on its Yahoo bid Thursday.

In its just-completed conference call with analysts, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said the company has seen no good reason to up its bid.

Liddell said Yahoo continues to lose search share and see profitability decline.

"We've yet to see tangible evidence that our bid substantially undervalues the company," Chris Liddell said. "In fact, we have seen the opposite."

Of course, Yahoo also talked tough on Tuesday in its call, suggesting that it won't consider a deal unless it fairly values the company, which it has said Microsoft's does not.

Liddell complained at the glacial pace at which Yahoo was responding to Microsoft's offer.

"We have been clear that speed is of the essence," he said. "Unfortunately, the transaction has been anything but speedy.

For those who have forgotten the details amid the seemingly endless war of words, Microsoft made its offer on February 1, saying that it would pay a combination of cash and stock valuing Yahoo at $31 a share. Yahoo rejected the offer, saying it undervalued the company. Since then, Yahoo has been looking at all kinds of other options including a tie-up with AOL and a search advertising test with Google.

Liddell reiterated the company's deadline for Yahoo to get serious about negotiations.
On Thursday, Liddell again told Yahoo to hurry up.

"Unless we make progress with Yahoo by this weekend, we will reconsider our options." He adds that those options include taking an offer directly to Yahoo shareholders or walking away from Yahoo shareholders. If Microsoft walks away, Liddell suggested Microsoft might spend the money on other acquisitions or in trying to boost its own online business.

While Microsoft was talking up the strength of its bid, it's offer actually got weaker on Thursday given that it is a half cash, half stock offer. Microsoft's shares dropped in after-hours trading Thursday in the wake of Microsoft's less-than-blowout earnings. As of around 3:30 p.m. PT, the stock was at $30.27, down $1.53, or 4.8 percent.

http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9928321-56.html?tag=nefd.lede

Sharpening those Google Skills

What are We Teaching the Children?

In what is proving a wake-up call for libaries, Dr Ian Rowlands and his colleagues at the Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research (Ciber), based at University College London's centre for publishing, examined research literature on the information-seeking behaviour of the virtual scholar - and combined this with an analysis of the use made of British Library and Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc) websites.

The report, Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future, found users "power-browsing" or skimming material, using "horizontal" (shallow) research. Most spent only a few minutes looking at academic journal articles and few returned to them. "It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense," said the report authors.

But this behaviour was not restricted to "screenagers". "From undergraduates to professors, people exhibit a strong tendency towards shallow, horizontal, flicking behaviour in digital libraries. Factors specific to the individual, personality and background are much more significant than generation."

Further on:

Rowlands suggests in his study that schools are failing to equip students for independent online study. Academics and librarians are debating nationally and internationally whether students should be taught information literacy as a separate , accredited, skill - as occurs in some American institutions. Or whether it would be better to teach them to navigate virtual libraries within their main subject based studies - an approach favoured by many information specialists.

This all makes perfect sense. The very nature of using search engines like Google ingrain a kind skimming approach. Most students are not given even simple tools like a knowledge of Boolean searches or simple common sense rule that beginning small works best when starting out. They are not machines of precision. They stake a claim on sheer volume of information stored in their databases, the indexes are there but they do not work in a sense of a index in a book.

As I remarked previously in another post, I am working on a book. I did most of my research in the old old old school of using books. My sources were rare and often out of print works that in most cases if even available on line would be so for a price.

Students of all ages need to learn to make independent assessments of the quality of material by looking at the authors' experience, funders, use of sources, and where published.

Duh! Haven't librarians been pointing this out to educators since computers first appear in schools, libraries, and homes?

The boon of a great information exchange comes at the price of responsibility. The scenario is not that much different than that of a timid student walking into a large library and being overwhelmed by the card catalog and stacks of books around them.

I have said before that librarians should be teaching courses in grammar school on searching on-line. Like math and science, these are essential skills for any student to have.

I hope that politicians and civic leaders will get behind schools in helping them to fund this kind of education. Remember, you have to pay for this too.

Any thoughts?

Here is a link to the full story.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/librariesunleashed/story/0,,2274796,00.html

Be Sure to Mention My Name

Cross Refeferencing Service Launching the Summer

Weekly News Digest

April 21, 2008 — In addition to this week's NewsBreak(s), the editors have compiled the Weekly News Digest, featuring stories from the week just past that you should know about. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today. CLICK HERE to view all of this week's Weekly News Digest items.

CrossRef to Launch Plagiarism Detection Service CrossRef (www.crossref.org) announced an agreement with iParadigms, LLC (www.iparadigms.com) to launch the CrossCheck service to aid in verifying the originality of scholarly content. Following the success of CrossRef’s recent pilot of CrossCheck, the plagiarism detection service is scheduled to go live in June.

CrossRef is partnering with iParadigms to offer its members—scholarly and professional publishers—the opportunity to verify the originality of works submitted for publication using the iThenticate service to check against a vast database of proprietary as well as open web content. Until now, there was no automated way to check submissions against previous publications because the published literature had not been indexed and "text fingerprinted" for this purpose. The CrossCheck database will include the full-text journals of leading academic publishers, and it is expected to grow very rapidly over the coming months as CrossRef member publishers sign up for the service.

CrossCheck will be available to all CrossRef members who opt to contribute their content to the database. To use the service, publishers will need to integrate the checking tool into their editorial processes and develop suitable policies and guidelines. CrossRef is working with iParadigms, member publishers, and editorial system software producers on appropriate technical information and guidelines for CrossCheck.

iParadigms’ products include Turnitin, a web-based service used by students and faculty for the digital assessment of academic work, and iThenticate, an internet service that enables companies to determine originality and check documents for misappropriation.

Source: CrossRef

http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/wndReader.asp?ArticleId=48820

Britanica Online Fight Back

Kung FU Fighting with Wikipedia

The publisher's Britannica WebShare initiative, launched April 13 with Twitter streaming of a daily topic, announced on Friday a service called Britannica Widgets, with which bloggers can "post an entire cluster of related Encyclopaedia Britannica articles" for free.

Britannica also is offering "people who publish with some regularity on the Internet, be they bloggers, Webmasters, or writers," free access to Britannica's online content, with registration.

To use the widgets, anyone can now "copy and paste the several lines of code associated with each widget as HTML into the appropriate place on your site," Tom of Britannica WebShare wrote in a post. "Any readers who click on a link will get the entire Britannica article on the subject, even if access to the article normally requires a subscription. Really. Try it."

I somehow feel this is going to be an uphill battle. The article implies for example that since I keep a regular blog that I could get free online access. Well, I might be induced to look into it if I could be guaranteed no spam mail or that I will have unlimited access. To me that is the rub of it. I am spoiled by the Internet. I enjoy the instant gratification of for nothing school of researching.
The frustration of working remotely from home and being denied access because there are problems with the server, you have no proxy, your subscription has expired, and a host of other little annoyances are part of the virtual world.

For example, I am currently working on a book. Most of my researching is being done in libraries and at home with my personal reference collection-that is BOOKS! I know, you have heard campfire tales of your grandparents owning and using these heavy box shaped paper weights. Yet sometimes it isn't available for free on the web. I often find that I need works of a peer reviewed quality, and the Internet is a haven for all sorts of rubbish. It is also full of potential good, too. The problem is that good information is often swimming in an ocean of worthless information. Most good researching on line must happen through libraries and university servers. Scholars publish on line sometimes, and there is a new generation of teachers and university professors using social software and wiki's to publish. The emergence of open source software has led to some hope of free access to the best literature in sciences, social sciences, and arts. The problem is that greed often precedes these endeavors. In most cases it is not a universal access where for example, the X university is posting actual complete video taped or pod casted lectures of professor Y with notes. You couldn't really sit at home and watch an entire semester of lectures on You Tube for example.

The concept of open access on the Internet as theorized by the early architects of the Internet is different than what we see in most cases. The exceptions are sites like Wikipedia. Even the long awaited and talked about Google initiative to scan ever book in existence and post on line is not what it seems. Often I will find that I get only portions of the book and links to .com selling sites like Amazon or Borders Books.

Then I think that I some how got it wrong. That I never understood the point of free access on line and that my deluded notion of some Utopian free for all was me building sandcastles.

So yes, I will walk into the Britannica Online with my tail between my legs and humbly sign up and hope for the best. I am seeking knowledge after all, not ask Yahoo or Billy Bub.com online.

Any thoughts?


http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9923867-7.html?tag=nefd.top

In the Near Future

Found this on You Tube. I Laughed a Lot. Its Supposed to be a Cool Way to Learn Dewey Decimal System.

What I am: a Statement

Well...


I am a librarian. I am a professional dedicated to bringing more information and exchange of information and ideas. I am a gate keeper. I am more than a gate keeper, I am of a culture and its history. I help to help other professionals work to a common goal, the idea of library as a philosophy and not simple a building or place where the books are.

I am an extension of those ideas. I am those ideas. I am also an individual with talents, who has given his professional ambitions to a common interest and not to personal goals alone. I write, I read, I play the guitar, I draw, and I live for learning about the world and share my love of learning with others.

I look on the profession of librarianship as a living experience which evolves to the purposes of its culture and champions that cultures finest values. I consider the role of the librarian central to all cultures who wish to prosper from reflection and exchange of thought. The thought of a world without us is impossible to me.

I believe in technology and its place in my profession and as a tool to create new opportunities to create physical and virtual environments for all users to enjoy and learn and discover in. I believe in the ability of this technology to keep me alive and dynamic as a learner and user of technology. I believe in its endless possibilities and not in limits.

I look on the world and celebrate its diversity and invite other professionals from other heritages and backgrounds, other races, religions, and cultures to come and share with me their thoughts on librarianship, and what it means to be a librarian to their people. I wish to learn from them.

I want to share with others my beliefs and inspirations. I want to share my ideas and be part of ideas like my own.

I want to learn and learn everyday, I want to be evolving like the needs of my patrons and to invite them to the dialogue of what they believe library and librarian is.

Any thoughts?

Stop that Man! He's too Advanced!

Who is In Charge Here?


The suspiciously thin, port-free laptop sends airport security into a tizzy, until cooler heads prevail.

Maybe it's time for some tech briefings at the TSA, no?On his blog, programmer Michael Nygard (by way of the Unofficial Apple Weblog) writes that during a recent trip through the airport, his solid-state MacBook Air stopped TSA agents—puzzled by its lack of rear-facing ports or a standard hard drive—in their tracks.

Nygard said the agents put him and his suspicious "device" in a holding cubicle as security staffers huddled nearby, looking at X-ray printouts of the sinister-looking Air and scratching their heads.

A younger TSA agent—who, apparently, was aware of Apple's newest laptop—tried explaining to the group that the Air uses solid-state memory in place of a traditional hard drive.

The senior staffer, however, was still reluctant to let it go: "New products on the market? They haven't been TSA approved. Probably shouldn't be permitted," Nygard writes.Finally, after booting up the Air and running a program, the agents let Nygard go, he said—but only after he'd missed his flight.

I've been hearing stories like these all too often, which leads to the question: how exactly are TSA agents being trained, anyway? How about, I dunno, some regular briefings on the latest gadgets that might be making their way through security checkpoints? And while TSA agents are wasting time fussing with laptops, undercover investigators with bomb parts in their bags have been sailing though security checkpoints. Anyone else out there get stopped by airport security because of a "suspicious" gadget in their luggage? Feel free to vent right here.

This story amazed me too. The spots on TV for these ultra thin notebooks have been splattered all over TV for months now. I suppose these particular security agents were acting with the best intention, I think this may have been a case of profiling, however.

A couple months back I sent a friend who works in a nearby library a list of the expected technical skills that a librarian should have. She was stunned by a long list of knowledge in operations, networking, hardware and trouble shooting, software, programming and markup languages, social software, the universe of gaming, and oh, yes, how to download on every piece of the latest cellphone or IPhone that every kid walks in with.

No trouble? Then your ahead of me. I cannot afford most of the toys out there today. And because we live in this seemingly beta mode of life, what was hot two months ago is as old as microfische. Or so it seems that way. As fast as it seems to be moving it also has a saturation point. At a certain point fascination with the new toy is given over to buyers remorse. Consider Windows Vista, and the IPhone. Both were pushed on a busy market and people lined up to get their's. Then all the nasty bugs, the unpleasant surprise when, for example, travelers using their IPhone got a nasty shock on reaching home. A bill for hundreds of dollars for surfing the Net on their new toy. The point is that human folly has a price. Error in programing, hidden fees, and a general disregard for the old axiom "Caveat emptor" will lead to misunderstanding. If you want to lead the pack it may you cost you more than you think.

If I could, I would live blissfully in the printed age. With my copy of the Golden Bough or sermons by John Donne I have the sweet and familiar footing and no roaming charges or threat of hackers. Nor do I have to worry about phishers, cookies, viruses, or my mother board blowing (the last having happened to me). Its just there.

But I am linked to computers because I live in the 21st century. I have a social need for them and they have come to represent in my consciousness a vital part of my link to the world around me. I could unplug them and go and live on an Island, but according to recent ads on TV you can get Internet access even on Gilligan's Island.

So what's the point of this? Well, I suppose to turn the damn thing off once and awhile, and go for a walk. Go to a cafe, or a bookstore. Go and see a movie or call someone up and invite them over for a home cooked meal or go out to dinner. Remember that they are here to serve us.

We should not become slaves to our technology. That is the old lesson that even tech savvy Jones' can learn. In some small way we are part of something else. Someone else is leading us around when we spend hours hammering away at a keyboard or shrieking when are hard drives crash. Who is the master is the question. Or:

Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog Which I Gave to His Royal Highness

I am his Highness' dog at Kew;
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?

--Alexander Pope

Any thoughts?

Here is a link to the story above:

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/14047

You Educated?

You Tube Open Source Format a Boon for Free Exchange

The need for open source exchange software and formats is a great idea for teachers and librarians here is an example that is leading the way:

You Tube has opened up its application programming interfaces (APIs) to the world. This will let developers build what amounts to their own mini-YouTubes on their Web sites, blogs or Wikis.

"We now support upload, other write operations and internationalized standard feeds," wrote Stephanie Liu of the YouTube APIs and Tools Team on the YouTube blog.

Users will also get APIs for the video player and what's called a "chromeless player" -- a bare-bones player using Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) Shockwave Flash that can be customized and controlled with the player APIs to provide the look and feel the user wants.

Users get two types of authentication to control who logs into YouTube accounts on their Web sites, blogs or Wikis. One is AuthSub, for Web applications, where the Web application can acquire a secure token, and the other is ClientLogin, for installed applications.

The authentication capabilities let Website owners retain their users: "Your users can upload to YouTube, comment on videos, manipulate playlists and more all without leaving your site or app," Liu said.

So universities and schools can set up entire web universities that keep its users on sight and they will not be steered away to ads or bothered by unrelated content. Entire course loads of professors and there lectures can be posted.

Users can tag and comment, create favorite play lists and do everything else they can on You Tube on any site now.

Pretty cool, huh?

Any thoughts?

Here is the link to the story:

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/YouTube-Gives-Developers-Video-Takeout-Option-62093.html

Bigger and Bigger and Still Bigger

The Ever Expanding Digital Exchange

The "digital universe" of data was bigger than expected in 2007 and continuing to explode in size, according to a new study from IDC.

The study, sponsored by EMC (NYSE: EMC) and titled "The Diverse and Exploding Digital Universe: An Updated Forecast of Worldwide Information Growth Through 2011," found that there were about 281 billion gigabytes (or 281 exabytes) in the digital universe in 2007, exceeding original estimates by about 10 percent.

With a compound annual growth rate of almost 60 percent, meanwhile, the digital universe is also growing faster than was previously thought, and is projected to increase tenfold over the next five years to reach nearly 1.8 zettabytes -- or 1,800 exabytes -- in 2011, the study's authors predicted.

"Society is already feeling the early effects of the world's digital information explosion," said Joe Tucci, chairman, president and CEO of EMC. "Organizations need to plan for the limitless opportunities to use information in new ways and for the challenges of information governance."

45 GB per Person
In 2007 the digital universe was equal to almost 45 gigabytes of digital information for every person on earth, IDC said, or the equivalent of more than 17 billion 8 GB iPhones.

Accelerated growth in worldwide shipments of digital cameras, digital surveillance cameras and digital televisions are among the factors behind the information explosion, IDC found.

Other fast-growing corners of the digital universe include those related to Internet access in emerging countries, sensor-based applications, data centers supporting "cloud computing" and social networks comprised of digital content created by many millions of online users, the study found.

The Digital Shadow

Of the wealth of data that exists about individuals, IDC found that the majority is now created by entities other than the individuals themselves, the study found.

"We discovered that only about half of your digital footprint is related to your individual actions -- taking pictures, sending e-mails, or making digital voice calls," explained John Gantz, chief research officer and senior vice president with IDC.

"The other half is what we call the 'digital shadow' -- information about you -- names in financial records, names on mailing lists, Web surfing histories or images taken of you by security cameras in airports or urban centers," Gantz added. "For the first time, your digital shadow is larger than the digital information you actively create about yourself."

New External Focus

With so much data in general and so much information about virtually every individual on the planet, security, privacy protection, reliability and legal compliance will all draw increased attention, IDC said.

For corporate IT departments, one of the biggest transitions will be from focusing purely on internally generated data to also managing data that comes from outside the company, Dave Reinsel, group vice president for storage and semiconductor research with IDC and a coauthor on the study, told TechNewsWorld.

"All of a sudden, companies providing structures for Web 2.0 or other service-oriented architectures are becoming custodians for someone else's data," Reinsel explained.

More Unstructured Data

Expiration concerns will be among those that emerge as a result, he said.

For example, "if a customer wants data deleted, it will have to be removed off the primary database but also through the entire infrastructure," he said.

An increasing proportion of unstructured data, meanwhile, will make it difficult to maintain relevancy, Reinsel added. "With structured data, it's nicely organized, but when it's unstructured, many times we don't even know where it is," he explained.

IDC also found that the number of individual information packets is growing even faster than the simple amount of information, Reinsel noted. "Managing that influx is going to be very difficult," he warned. "Companies will need protection schemes and good information management to understand what that data is."

Privacy Concerns
Privacy advocates, not surprisingly, worry about the effect of all this data on individual privacy.

"My big concern is that pretty soon these organizations that have collected so much information about us will know more about us than we do about ourselves," Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), told TechNewsWorld. "We need to start thinking about this, particularly as ID theft becomes more widespread."

Possible approaches to protecting privacy could include limiting the amount of data retained, making companies more transparent in the information they collect, and also making it more difficult for companies to collect it in the first place, Rotenberg said.

"We don't think the 'notice and choice' approach is correct," he added. "Information needs to be made less personally identifiable

After digesting this I felt like hiding under my favorite blanket in bed. You could get nervous just thinking too hard about it all.

With the ever increasing amount of surveillance that goes on in America today, and the increase of ways people who are dishonest may steel your private or sensitive information, it becomes a question of how can we regain some of the comforts of the printed world where there seem to be more privacy.

I think it goes beyond any one social trend or history of one particular kind or another. It seems to be an outcome of our need to find ourselves in the whirlwind of technology as it is. Social software is a grand marker of what we thought we should fear most, meaning that it makes things too easy and dangerous for our youths, and yet kids today are not given enough credit for understanding the technology or how it affects their own lives.

When it comes to the question of "Digital Shadows" and the like then it only seems to be a matter of common sense. You think of operating a computer as being one sided, yet there is an endless trail of information that is out there. Does that mean it is being used always? Certainly not! I think that as a matter of record it falls to the hands of individuals to think about there actions.

1. Use good sense. Avoid shopping on line if you can. Or, only use proven and known vendors and pay centers like Paypal for example.

2. If you do not want people to know things about you, don't do them online. Propriety is a matter of self control. If there is some personal information about you and your lifestyle, and you wish it to remain a secret then do it off line!

3. A good friend of mine is a banker advises me to do my banking in person at a branch and never online. She has related horror stories concerning identity theft. The funny thing is, she explains, sometimes it is not a complete stranger. Sometimes it is not someone phishing on line, but a neighbor digging through your trash! Lesson here: shred all financial document before tossing them out.

4. Don't assume that you have privacy anywhere in a public setting. Assume you are being watched. There are security cameras and people with phone cameras.

5. Information has changed itself. Everything seems to be up for grabs. Granted, this does not make it right or fair. The point, finally, is to use good sense.

Any thoughts?

Here is a link to the story:

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Study-Dark-Data-Shadow-Follows-Everyone-62096.html

Awh....

Before There was Footloose, there was Marian

100 Posts! Wow Everyone Will be Thrilled!

100!

It helps not to have any social life. Never go out or go to work. Stop returning phone calls. Cancel subscriptions. Toss your TV out. Stumble on a blog page. Hmmm....you begin to wonder.

How has the world existed without the witty observations and profound insights that I alone can offer?

The answer is clear-IT CANNOT.

So without considering the time spent or the cutting and pasting, the long hours thinking of catch phrases and goofy titles, you dive in.

And then it happens. The great trickle. A nerve wracking, eye popping flood of comments. Prepare yourself: I get one or two comments. I know, don't these folks have a life? After all who is running the libraries?

At first it was hard, but I reminded myself that it was about ME ME ME ME ME ME! and then I felt better.

Plus I love being a librarian. I love it. Also, I want to be the center of the universe because I am afraid to die and think world domination is fun career choice. I will do it one library at a time! Ha ha ha!

OK, that is out of my system.

Sorry.

I can't figure out why more people don't adore me.

Guess I will just have to go back to posting news.

Later...

The Bloggable Librarian

Hacking You

Worthy of Hollywood, or at Least Cable Access Hijinks

For a couple of hours on Sunday last You Tube IP Address was hijacked. Below is a link for the stories. There is an excellent link in the article of this story marked "Time Line"(http://www.renesys.com/blog/2008/02/pakistan_hijacks_youtube_1.shtml).

The basics of this hack is that by order of the Pakistan Government false ads were put up by Pakistan Telecom. Pakistan Telecom responded by broadcasting the false claim that it was the correct route for 256 addresses in You Tube's 208.65.153.0 network space. Because that was a more specific destination than the true broadcast from You Tube saying it was home to 1,024 computers, within a few minutes traffic started flowing to the wrong place.

Within the space of less than a minute a large portion of You Tube traffic was sent off the trail to a dead end. To put this in simple terms legitimate hosts of the You Tube broadcasts were cut out by a bogus claim of Pakistan's ISP hosting the broadcasts.This is not the first time that such a quick switch has been accomplished (http://www.renesys.com/blog/2005/12/internetwide_nearcatastrophela.shtml).

The opinion is that measures should be in affect to double check all changes in addresses. One example suggested is the following: One way to handle this is for network providers to be automatically notified when the virtual location of an Internet address changes, which is what some researchers have suggested in the form of a "hijack alert system." Another is to treat broadcasts with changes of addresses as suspicious for 24 hours and then accept them as normal. Simple filtering of broadcasts may not always work because some networks provide connectivity to customers with thousands of different routes.

Probably the most extensive countermeasure would be a technology like Secure BGP, which uses encryption to verify which network providers own Internet addresses and are authorized to broadcast changes. But Secure BGP has been around in one form or another form since 1998, and is still not a widely-used standard, mostly because it adds complexity and routers that understand will add additional cost.If there is a way to fool people or disrupt service some people of a less democratic frame of mind will find it and use it.

When ideology clashes with human exchanges the result is often something as ugly as terrorism and in a very small way this is terrorism. Granted it is not the murder of innocents people, but it is a violation of the open concepts of the Internet and as librarians is just another in an endless list of reasons for librarians to be defenders and keeps of that which is virtual and not only the print.

Any thoughts?

Here is a link:

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9878655-7.html?tag=nefd.lede

New Custom Ideas from Thomson

Thomson Scientific to Use Collexis’ Knowledge Dashboard in Custom Solution

Thomson Scientific (www.scientific.thomson.com) and Collexis Holdings, Inc.

(www.collexis.com), a developer of search and knowledge discovery software, announced plans to join together Collexis’ Knowledge Dashboard with Thomson Scientific’s Web of Science to create a custom data mining solution for the research community. Called the Thomson Collexis Dashboard, it is designed to provide enhanced knowledge discovery for the academic and government R&D communities. By merging Thomson Scientific’s Web of Science data with the Collexis Knowledge Dashboard, users will have the ability to identify and search for documents, experts and trends, and to make new discoveries more quickly, accurately, and deeply than via conventional search engines.

The Thomson Collexis Dashboard is a custom software and information solution that enables scientists to analyze large numbers of publications concerning a defined topic swiftly and efficiently and filter the essential information. Additionally, it allows researchers to explore existing knowledge concepts and provides proactive suggestions about the direction of research across a topic or by category. It also includes multiple thesauri that allow different points of view on the same data and subject navigation. A time-saving solution for scientists, the Thomson Collexis Dashboard includes summarized information, which reportedly is not to be found in any system currently available, and it provides identification of experts across categories on multiple subsets of the literature instantly—including their relevant social network.

Source: Thomson Scientific

Any thoughts?

Here is the link:

http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/wndReader.asp?ArticleId=41005

New Additions to OCLC

OCLC NEWS

NetLibrary announces agreements with 21 international publishers

DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 1 February 2008—NetLibrary, OCLC's platform for eContent and the leading provider of eBooks for the institutional library market, has announced agreements with 21 leading publishers that will add thousands of new eBooks and eAudiobooks to NetLibrary's growing catalog of more than 160,000 titles.

This international agreement will be a great source of free documents for scholars and students. Score one for open source!

I sometimes wonder if Americans cares at all about education. The opening of the market further shows that financial profit need not be the motivation behind publishers when working with libraries. Libraries everywhere need more of this.

Any thoughts?

Here is the link to the full story:

A Man, a Guitar, a Librarian

Minstrel Kiss and Tell

About Time!

Yeah!

This is a very interesting article on the recent movement in libraries to hire and maintain full time software developers to handle the e needs of cataloging collections. Long outsourced the waste and frustration of living with and depending on databases not designed under the direct supervision or by librarians is changing. There is some reason for the complaints which have been so common. While the third party solutions have been a crutch, a movement to resolve these issues in the profession has been slow in development. As Andy Guess points out in this article:

Still, some libraries, fed up with software that doesn’t fully meet their needs, have decided to take matters, figuratively, into their own hands. With a bit of grant money and some eager developers, institutions have begun creating their own open-source solutions that are fully customizable, free for others to use and compatible with existing systems. The result has been a whole crop of projects that, when combined, could serve as a fully integrated, end-to-end open-source solution for academic libraries, covering the interface, search mechanism, database system, citations and even course management.


Meanwhile, the increasing availability of open-source software has nudged some libraries to reconsider the role of their in-house technology gurus, and to wonder whether it would make more long-term financial sense to hire more developers than to continue paying for products over which they have limited control.

The name of the game is open source and saving money. It's all about finding solutions that work and will not lead to crippling investments and subscription and maintenance fees. For example:

Open-source Web catalogs like VuFind tend to look a lot like search engines that people who work online are already used to. VuFind (and, eventually, XC) adds Web 2.0 functionality on top of the traditional interface, allowing users to e-mail search results and save results to their favorites. One feature Nagy said was a high priority for library developers is “faceted navigation,” which allows users to drill down and refine searches by, for example, author, topic or format. The VuFind interface is also completely compatible with the open-source citation management tool Zotero, a plugin for the Firefox browser.


Another piece of the puzzle is federated search: an engine that sifts through numerous different databases for each user query. One tool being developed at Oregon State University, LibraryFind, combines federated search with a simple, Google-like interface that lets users sort by relevance, save items, refine searches and view electronic documents.



Any thoughts?



Here is the link to the story:



http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/02/19/opensource

Not So Social

Decrease in Traffic at Piczo Social Networking Site

CNET News.com reporter Caroline McCarthy co-wrote this article.

Three former Piczo employees described a company grappling with the meteoric rise of competitors Facebook and Bebo and internal squabbles over the direction of the 3-year-old start-up. The company has also struggled to convince skeptical advertisers of the effectiveness of social networking as an effective ad vehicle--a tough sales pitch for the entire social-networking sector, say insiders. Know for its target audience of teen girls, this social site is now in what management is terming a restructuring as it branches out into a more mature European market. While use of FaceBook is growing this company saw a decline in the past year after a promising start in 2006.

Jeremy Verbo, acting CEO of Piczo, sites the nature of the industry, software development, seasonal changes, and most importantly competition from other big players in the market."We were in the United Kingdom early, and certainly as (Bebo and Facebook) came on, that affected us," Verba said. "Our growth started slowing. But it's a time-spent issue. Our users didn't move on to these other sites. What we're seeing is a lot of overlap. What happened is some of our engagement decreased."

The lay off of employees is like the platuea that occurs in many industries in computer related fields. The saturation of the market leads to a burn out. The ubiquity of these services make them common place.I know that people will often open a Facebook account, Myspace, and play around with other scenes to get a sense of where the flow is. Then the account often sits unattended. Users are simply tired of it, some blog pundits have argued, and they won't stay on any one site too long before moving on to the next big thing. In part the number of visits a site gets is a number factors including last but not least its indexing in a search engine. It should be no wonder that that novility can get you far, but then you better keep getting your name out.In the long run there is no sense of loyalty, but instead an iconographic association occurring in some web places. For example, You Tube is often copied but still remains the largest in an ever growing sea of video playing platforms where for nothing people can get their 15 minutes. People think of it like they do Craig’s List. Its like Googling. You turn your computer on and just do it.

The lesson may be that there is a limit to the market size and smart web developers are coming up not with the latest template but riding the next social software wave.

Any thoughts?

Here is the link:

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9877437-7.html?tag=nefd.lede

What Do You Mean It Won't Work?!

I Hate My Computer!

Everyone who has suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous compatibility issues will tell you their story about how all their buddies were playing World of War Craft and then they logged on to find the version they purchased is not compatible with their system or the computer they inherited from their second cousin twice removed after he married (sorry about the example-this happened to someone I know) isn't powerful enough to handle e-mails. So it isn't surprising that in a world where gaming is typically the province of gaming systems there are compatibility issues.

Lets face it, until someone makes the universal grail of a consumers information and entertainment needs, I mean a tool that is a computer, home entertainment system, office system, and will play any game you plug into it, there will be a kind of raw distrust that manufactures of PC's will be forced to suffer through. But now the PC Gaming Alliance is moving to do something about it.

The nonprofit PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA) aims to unite hardware and software creators, game developers, publishers and others committed to the PC gaming market with the common purpose of advancing the PC as a gaming platform. The group's founding members include Acer/Gateway, Activision Publishing, AMD, Dell/Alienware, Epic, Intel, Microsoft, Nvidia and Razer USA. Together, member companies plan to cooperate on accelerating innovation, improving the gaming experience for consumers and serving as a collective source of market information and expertise on PC gaming, the group said.

It should be no surprise that in an age where gaming platforms like Playstation, Wii, and Xbox are as powerful as some low end PC's, that such a standardization of PC's would help manufacturers keep their consumers happy.

The PCGA has a long haul ahead of them. Among the many challenges ahead is to produce a set of minimum expectations as to what game developers should be targeting in terms of minimum system requirements for their games.

Uniformity of system standards would be a great boon to game designers who would like to see everyone playing their games. I know that the first time I saw the price of the Playstation 3 when it was released last year was to gulp and assign myself to not being one of the cool kids on the block. It was too expensive. As for my friend with the junk from his cousin’s yard sale I can only offer him my sympathy. Hang in there man, he may be upgrading to Vista soon.

Any thoughts?

Here is the link to this story:

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Can-the-PC-Survive-as-a-Gaming-Platform-61760.html