Expect Resistance & Library Autonomous Zone » Digital Divide

Prof. Cornel West’s message to Obama

ShinJoung — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:50:58 +0000

Check out the message for president Obama from Professor Cornel West of Princeton University on BBC.

Google Books is a Bookstore, Not a Library

jajacobs — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:38:39 +0000

The controversial Google project to scan books from libraries, index them, and make them full-text searchable (books.google.com) has been known by several names in its short existence: the Google library project, Google book search, Google books, and now Google Editions. The popular press has repeatedly referred to the project as a “library” even “the Google library.” (See a list of sample quotes here.) But the project is clearly not a “library” but a bookstore, as the recent announcement of “Google Editions” makes clear.

In a recent story on the PBS News Hour, Pam Samuelson, professor at the University of California Berkeley, says this specifically: “It’s basically turned this project into a bookstore, rather than a library.”

Drowning in a sea of information

ShinJoung — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 06:55:38 +0000

January 1st NY Times ran a story titled Why Twitter Will Endure along with a modified image of Hokusai’s famous woodblock print. I thought it was an interesting juxtaposition between the two images.

End of the internet?

James R. Jacobs — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 12:31:50 +0000

The End of the Internet?

Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, wrote this article back in February. In fact, we probably blogged about it right here because net neutrality is a HUGE issue for libraries. And if you didn’t get a chance to read the article the first time around, Amy Goodman has a very good interview with Chester on today’s Democracy Now. Give it a listen. It’s incredibly pertinent. (This is part one with part 2 being broadcast tomorrow).

And for those of you in the bay area, be sure to go to the EFF fundraiser next thursday April 20th. There’s to be a panel discussion about pay email and net neutrality between Esther Dyson, editor of Release 1.0, CNET’s quarterly technology-industry newsletter, Danny O’Brien, Activist coordinator for EFF, and Mitch Kapor, President and Chair of the Open Source Applications Foundation. T

The nation’s largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online.
–Jeff Chester, “The End of the Internet?”

WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?

jajacobs — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:15:21 +0000

The Edge Annual Question – 2006

To the Edge Community,

Last year’s 2005 Edge Question – “What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?” – generated many eye-opening responses from a “who’s who” of third culture scientists and science-minded thinkers. The 120 contributions comprised a document of 60,000 words. The New York Times (“Science Times”) and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (“Feuilliton”) published excepts in their print and online editions simultaneously with Edge publication….

A book based on the 2005 Question — What We Believe But Cannot Prove: Today’s Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty, with an introduction by the novelist Ian McEwan — was just published by the Free Press (UK). The US edition follows from HarperCollins in February, 2006….

This year, the third culture thinkers in the Edge community have written 117 original essays (a document of 72,500 words) in response to the 2006 Edge Question — “What is your dangerous idea?”. Here you will find indications of a new natural philosophy, founded on the realization of the import of complexity, of evolution. Very complex systems — whether organisms, brains, the biosphere, or the universe itself — were not constructed by design; all have evolved. There is a new set of metaphors to describe ourselves, our minds, the universe, and all of the things we know in it.

Happy 20th birthday National Security Archive

James R. Jacobs — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 01:57:51 +0000

National Security Archive 20th Anniversary: Celebrating 20 Years of Keeping Government Honest

The National Security Archive celebrates its 20th anniversary today with a special event at George Washington University, headlined by Bill Moyers, with Seymour M. Hersh, Tina Rosenberg, Scott Armstrong, Geneva Overholser, Walter B. Slocombe, Morton H. Halperin and Sherry Jones. You can download audio of Bill Moyers’ keynote address as well as the panels with the other speakers. Moyers once again does an amazing job! If you haven’t heard him talk (and even if you have!!), you’re in for a real treat.

Yahoo instant search

jajacobs — Sun, 09 Oct 2005 12:07:19 +0000

Yahoo! Search – Instant Search.
“Instant Search gives you answers as you type — no more waiting!”

This beta application from
Yahoo next uses
Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) programming to deliver immediately, as you type, a best match
for your search. This is certainly an interesting and flashy application
that may be useful in some search situations.

It is also interesting to look at the technology behind the application and how such technology might be of use to libraries. Ajax applications “look almost as if they reside on the user’s machine, rather than across the Internet on a server. The reason: pages get updated, not entirely refreshed.” (Ajax wikipedia article).

But this technology also has privacy implications:
Using the XMLHttpRequest Object and AJAX to Spy On You by Earle Castledine, devX.com, August 9, 2005.

Roundup of Recent Items of Interest

jajacobs — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 11:43:42 +0000

Without comment, here are several articles of interest from
the last week or so. Have a good weekend!

The Center for Democracy and Technology

ShinJoung — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 03:40:21 +0000

Center for Democracy and Technology promotes democratic values and constitutional liberties in the digital age. With expertise in law, technology, and policy etc.

wireless Internet access is as essential as water

ShinJoung — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 16:17:24 +0000

The Triangle unwired by Fiona Morgan, Independent Weekly. The article describes the Internet access is not a luxury but a public utility and the need of WiFi. It provides various examples of WiFi programs around the country.