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Public Radio, podcasting, the future of information
August 17, 2005Here is an interesting article: NPR defining new Podcast strategy. NPR has had an agreement with Audible.com, but didn’t renew their contract and will be announcing a new policy “for making NPR content downloadable and portable.” A somewhat related story, The Future Of Public Radio by Doug Kaye, 8/10/05, has some interesting ideas about high [...]
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Wikipedia and viral marketing
August 15, 2005According to boingboing, some companies use wikipedia as a viral marketing tool. Boingboing describes a recent incident in which the BBC was caught doing this (although it was learned later that it wasn’t an official BBC ad). This insidious advertising is really dangerous as it calls into question the inherent validity of *all* information. This [...]
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Author Interview: J.D. Lasica on Darknets
August 13, 2005Internet Archive: Details: Interview with JD Lasica about ‘Darknet’ Citizen journalist Eleanor Kruszewski interviews JD Lasica, author of the book “Darknet: Hollywood’s War Against the Digital Generation,” at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco during the Supernova conference, June 22, 2005.
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Hollywood dictates your hardware
August 9, 2005Hollywood Controlling Parts of Windows Vista Design by Edward W. Felten, Freedom to Tinker, August 9, 2005. Felten examines a Microsoft white paper on the design of Vista (formerly Longhorn), the next Windows operating system. He says that, “The document reveals that movie studios will have explicit veto power over what is included in some [...]
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What is Network Neutrality and Why Should Libraries Care?
August 9, 2005In light of the FCC’s extremely passive take on “network neutrality” (see FCC deregulates DSL and How Martin’s FCC is different from Powell’s), it is worth taking a moment to examine the importance of network neutrality to libraries. Some good background can be found here: Neutral Ground: As Web Providers’ Clout Grows, Fears Over Access [...]
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Free community wi-fi is a library issue
August 8, 2005MuniWireless article series Libraries are all about access to information right? Then librarians should be talking about and advocating for municipal wireless networks. Wireless should be seen as just one more public utility (water, sewer, …) that should be supported by city governments. Currently, 34 U.S. cities and 50 foreign cities have deployed Wi-Fi, while [...]
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How Martin’s FCC is different from Powell’s
August 8, 2005We’ve been posting a lot this week about the FCC and this may seem off-topic to some of our librarian readers. Trust us, it is on topic. If you have any doubts, read this item by David S. Isenberg, which compares the philosophies of network access of past FCC chairman Powell (who “began the slow, [...]
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Computer tools may be dumbing down student writing
August 8, 2005In one of this week’s most-mailed articles from the Chronicle, G. David Pollick, president of Birmingham-Southern College, says: “The style of writing is changing — it’s becoming conditioned by models and forms,” he said. Grammar-checker features of word processors, for instance, often mark flowery phrases as mistakes and suggest bland alternatives, he said. “You start [...]
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Benton Covers FCC DSL Ruling
August 8, 2005BENTON’S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY AUGUST 8, 2005 Benton Foundation Today’s Benton newsletter has extensive coverage of last week’s FCC decision to “de-regulate” telephone companies’ Digital Subscriber Line services. Excerpt from the Wall Street Journal: As more and more Americans turn to high-speed connections, or broadband, for their access to the Internet, the power of [...]
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Susan Crawford on FCC Network Neutrality
August 7, 2005Faith in Neutrality, Susan Crawford blog As noted earlier, the FCC DSL ruling included some principles on network neutrality which would would bar DSL providers from degrading or blocking services offered by competitors, but the principles are unenforceable. Susan Crawford, in this short posting, examines FCC Chairman Martin’s committment (or lack of it) to network [...]