Expect Resistance & Library Autonomous Zone

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A Nation Online: Entering the Broadband Age.
US Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
“A Nation Online: Entering the Broadband Age is the sixth report released by the U.S. Department of Commerce examining the use of computers, the Internet, and other information technology tools by the American people. Based on the U.S. Census BureauÕs Current Population Survey of 57,000 households containing 134,000 persons, this report provides broad-based and statistically reliable information on the ways that information technologies in general, and broadband more specifically, are transforming the way we live, work, and learn.”

Following the pattern of the last few reports, this one paints a rosy picture of net usage without a single mention of ‘the digital divide.’ But the data the report uses paint a starkly different picture.
Appendix 2 is the only place in the report where
non-internet use is documented. Here you find the reality: vast segments of the population are not using the net and have no access to it:

The report further masks the digital divide by lumping access to the net at work with access at home — thus inflating the numbers of people who have access to the net for personal use. When one looks at kind of access at home, one sees that only about 22% of homes have broadband access; the rest have slow dialup lines. The report does not bother to provide the demographic break down of who has broadband and who does not, but you can run the numbers yourself
using the actual raw data. (See link to CPS below.)

Related information:

• US netizens: white, wealthy and full of it - shock!
  By Andrew Orlowski. The Register,
  1st December 2004.
• data and documentation from the CPS Computer ownership supplement

What if the IRaqi war were happening in the US?

While I haven’t made it a practice to comment on the war in Iraq, I found this short sobering blog post by Juan Cole, a professor of history at the University of Michigan, to be insightful and disturbing.

[thanks to the Votemaster at electoral.vote.com where you'll find an un-to-the-minute electoral vote predictor and lots of other information!]

Toward
Equality of Access
The Role of Public Libraries
in Addressing the Digital Divide.
This report has been sponsored by the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and
developed in partnership with:
AARP
AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
BEAUMONT FOUNDATION OF AMERICA
BENTON FOUNDATION
INSTITUTE OF MUSEUM AND
LIBRARY SERVICES
LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE
ON CIVIL RIGHTS
NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES
U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Pew Internet & American Life Project
has served as research advisor.

Ninety-five percent of public libraries in the United States
offer free access to computers and the Internet, often
providing the only Internet access for residents of the
nationÕs poorest areas. This report evaluates the
importance of these library-based computers in addressing
the digital divide.
Drawing from government statistics and independent
research, the report finds widespread acceptance of
library-based computer and Internet access from patrons
and librarians. But more importantly, the report finds that
public access computing is benefiting those socioeconomic
groups with the greatest need.
However, the report also notes urgentÑbut manageableÑ
challenges facing libraries as they seek to maintain and
further develop their role in providing access to digital
information. This valued public service can only be
sustained by the continued support of policymakers,
librarians, and community advocates.

WatchBlog: 2004 U.S. Election News, Opinion and Commentary

WatchBlog is a multiple-editor weblog broken up into three major political affiliations, each with its own blog: the Democrats, the Republicans and the Third Party (covering everything outside the two major parties).

Simson Garfinkel has written a great piece for Technology Review, describing the ways in which P2P technology could give us a more secure, stable, efficient Internet. “At the end of the day, peer-to-peer technology is about increasing the reliability and the redundancy of Internet-based systems. ThatÕs why the recording industry is afraid of itÑbecause peer-to-peer can be used to create networks that the industry canÕt shut down. But peer-to-peer can also be used to create networks that earthquakes, wars, and terrorists canÕt shut down. Ultimately, I think that weÕre better off trying to strengthen the Internet rather than trying to make it weaker.”

The Shifted Librarian: Tuesday, September 16, 2003
Examples:

“U.S. public library cardholders outnumber Amazon customers by almost 5 to 1…. Each day, U.S. libraries circulate nearly 4 times more items than Amazon handles.”

“U.S. libraries circulate 1,947,600,000 items a year”

FOIA Post (2003): Annual Report Guidance for DHS-Related Agencies

ACM: Ubiquity - Check out the New Library

Now there is a view that says
that digital libraries are not just places for calling up
material, they’re spaces for collaboration and annotation and
analysis and for authorship. At the extreme end are notions
like “collaboratories.”

Librarian’s Lao-Tzu: a translation especially for librarians. Try this one on for size:

All things arise from the Library.

They are nourished by the profession.

They are formed from data.

They are shaped by the end user.