Mannderings

Net Neutrality or Regulating the Internet?

2006-05-14T23:58:00.000-06:00

I've received several forwarded emails from friends about Net Neutrality and Government trying to regulate the Internet. Often, such emails end up being time wasters, hoaxes, or alarmist in nature. I heard a few things here and there in the news and saw a blog post or two. I finally decided it was time to do some actual fact checking, which turned out to be harder than I thought. The hulabaloo seemed to be over House of Representatives Bill 5252 (HR 5252), which web searching gave me at least three different topics for the bill--about oil production in protected reserves, about regulating communication, or about Fair Access to Clinical Trials. According to the House of Representatives official site, it is the "Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006." It's proponents say that it's about allowing competition to drive market innovation and getting government out of the way of the free enterprise system. It's detractors say it's about abandoning the so-called First Amendment of the Internet--equal access, and letting the big telecommunications companies (telcos) start charging for Internet use.

I've had a difficult time finding good information about why the proponents of COPE2006 think it's a good thing. What I can find is that telcos have been posing as bloggers, putting blatant untruths out there. There are several web sites that argue that the detractors of COPE2006 are trying to regulate the Internet, and there are so called grass roots campaigns (veiled telco fronts) to prevent the Democrats from having Government take over the Internet. That is simple misdirection with almost no truth to it whatsoever. What isn't apparent is if there is a reasonable argument in favor of COPE2006 as it currently stands. It seems to me that the Barton-Rush amendment is a non-answer to the problem and is tainted by Rush's financial interests (Chicago Sun Times revealed on 25 April 2006 that Rush had received over $1 million in campaign contributions from telcos).

The case for the detractors has grabbed the bloggers attention. They are campaigning for an amendment called net neutrality. It seems to be widely accepted that the current bill lacks protections and will allow ISPs and bandwidth owners to charge a fee for high speed passage. This would have the effect of blocking or severly limiting access to those who don't pay the fee (bye-bye YouTube and non-commercial video). Their case is well represented by a YouTube video (if you don't know what YouTube is, check out my earlier posting). Here's that video:

For more info on efforts to add a net neutrality amendment, see Save the Internet and Dissenting Views to COPE2006 from Commerce Committee House Democrats.
Can anyone tell me what the sponsors of HR 5252 (COPE 2006) say it will accomplish or what their motivation might be other than selling out to telco interests?
What do you think?

Trend for customer-generated content

2006-05-14T23:10:00.000-06:00

An excellent post by Darlene Fichter in her "Blog on the Side." She talks about trendwatching.com and titles her post "Consumer Trends for Libraries to Consider When Designing Services and Web Sites." That third trend is the one that caught my attention. Rather than repeat it, I've just referred you to her post.

7200 comments and suggestions per month may be overwhelming, but meeting the patron's needs requires feedback, and asking them to help create/design seems a great way to get it.

True "on-demand" TV

2006-05-08T11:42:00.000-06:00

Thanks, Library Journal, for calling ABC's groundbreaking move to my attention! It seems that ABC has quietly been the first of the major networks to start placing their full shows online. I've been telling people that it's coming; that the future of broadcasting is on the web, but now it's finally happening.

If you think about it, it makes sense. People can watch the shows they want to see when they want to see them. Don't worry about VCRs or DVRs, just go online and click on the show and episode you want and watch it on your PC. Need to take a break? Just pause it. The advertisers are pleased because the rebroadcast includes the commercials and, unlike a VCR, you can't fast forward through the commercials.

If you think about it, this will have far-reaching consequences for the broadcast business and for libraries. I feel it will also be revolutionary in the way we spend our leisure time and how we think about information and entertainment.

Check out ABC's initial offerings (Lost, Alias, Commander in Chief, and, of course, Desperate Housewives) at http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing.
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ClustrMap

2006-05-03T00:16:00.000-06:00

I wanted to explain the little map to the right under my photo. It is a ClustrMap. It's a map that shows the origin of the visitors to my blog. It is provided by ClustrMap. For those of you who have a blog or a web page, it is a little snippet of html code that you add to your web site (or blog), which then tracks the visitors to your web page and creates the little map. It check for updates every 24 hours. It is very easy to use and includes instructions. From the time I first read about it until I had the map showing up on my blog was less than five minutes! Just click on the map at right to get a larger map showing where the visitors to my blog come from.

If you're interested, check out www.clustrmap.com.
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Eye-Fi

2006-05-01T20:00:00.000-06:00

I've been reading about so many exciting things the past few weeks that I haven't had time to write about them. Here's something that caught my eye-- Eye-Fi. This is a small SD card that slides into your digital camera that stores the pictures you take. What's different about this card is that it is also a wireless transmitter. So what does that mean?

It means that you when you take a picture with your digital camera, the flash card in the camera automatically sends the image wirelessly with whatever wireless network might be available to your preselected location--which might be your Flickr account, your web site, or even to Costco's photo development counter. It does this without wires and without a computer. You can even use your old digital camera, just replace the flash card with this Eye-Fi card.

The company has been testing and preparing for product launch, but just opened a mailing list for if you want to be notified when it becomes available (some time this summer?). Just take a quick look at www.eye.fi or look at one of the blogs that have picked up on it, namely:
Robert Scoble's Microsoft Geek blog
QJ.net's photography blog
Matt Roberts' All Things Technology blog
Business Mobility blog
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Archive of presentations for Libraries online

2006-04-07T00:58:00.000-06:00

My previous post was all about attending a workshop presentation from my PC in my office, although the workshop was in Illinois. The experience was a good one. I was able to log in to the service, see the PowerPoint slides on my own computer, listen to the presenter talking live, and could have asked a question through my computer's microphone input that the speaker and the other 500 or so attendees could have heard as well.

I had the advantage of being able to click the back arrow to return to the previous slide when the speaker moved to the next slide before I was ready. The sound quality was near perfect, the slides were actually superior to what I have experienced at some conferences, where slides are sometimes washed out by bright lighting or difficult to read because of distance or an awkward viewing angle from where I'm sitting.

I recommend the experience. This session was sponsored by the Online Programming for All Libraries Alliance (OPAL), whose purpose is to present online programming for all Libraries AND all library users. The schedule of their upcoming presentations is available at their website, as are recordings of all their past presentations. Check out www.opal-online.org/programs.htm for the schedule and www.opal-online.org/archive.htm for recordings of past programs.
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Top Ten Technologies for Libraries in 2006

2006-04-07T00:13:00.000-06:00

This was the title of a presentation at 1:00 today at the Illinois State Library which I attended virtually. I'll describe the virtual attendance process in my next post--this one is for the content of the presentation. Michael Stephens of the Thomas Ford Memorial Library was the presenter and he is an excellent speaker.

His ten things:

Weblogs (Blogs), with comments enabled
RSS - Building Knowledge and Communities
Wikis - Collaboration
Instant Messaging - Reaching the User where he lives
Podcasting - making audio available and helping customer podcast their own audio content
Open Source - How to accomplish innovation while cutting the budget
Devices - iPods, cell phones, and more
Social spaces - the latest rage, but here to stay
Content - create, 'cast, & mashup; includes user-generated content
Mashing up - using API to automatically create content

In addition, he talked about the future of Library systems and catalogs. He demonstrated WPOPAC (WordPress Online Public Access Catalog) at www.plymouth.edu/opac, where RSS, Blogs, Mashups, and user-generated comments and tags all merge with the Library catalog.

He concluded with Five things Libraries Can (should) Do NOW:

Read Blogs - keep up on what other libraries are doing, and current developments
Create a public "What's New" blog at your library - and allow users to leave comments, which you respond to daily
Experience new technologies - try them out, enter a social space (officially)
Train your staff to use RSS feeds - BlogLines or BlogBridge
Create an Emerging Technologies Team at your Library

NOW, the good news. Both the PowerPoint and the full audio track are available online. You can play the .mp3 audio, launch the PowerPoint, and experience this excellent presentation. The audio is 59 minutes, all located at:

SLIDES - www.opal-online.org/Stephens200604_files/frame.htm

AUDIO - www.opal-online.org/Stephens20060406.mp3

LINKS - tametheweb.com/2006/04/more_useful_links_for_the_opal.html

Dumping Library Rules

2006-04-06T22:13:00.000-06:00

Two great blog posts about unintended consequences of rules in a library

Dumping Rules by the Light, er, Dark of the Moon and
Pop Goes the Library: Rules = Patron Kryptonite

The bottom line summary of their comments is that most Library customers/patrons/guests are considerate. Rules may stop the few inconsiderate ones, but at what cost? It may be "cheaper" to let the few inconsiderate ones get away with something than to inconvenience the many who won't do anything harmful.
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Library Association of Ireland

2006-04-05T21:32:00.000-06:00

The Library Association of Ireland has set up a blog. There isn't much content there yet, but I mention it for two reasons (other than my British bias...), namely

It's a professional looking site; a good example for other groups looking to start a blog.
It has a genealogy and local studies group - check out their page at http://www2.libraryassociation.ie/?page_id=24

YouTube

2006-04-03T19:40:00.000-06:00

I posted thoughts on social networking previously at http://genlib.blogspot.com/2006/04/social-networking.html and YouTube is yet another example, but there are a few things different about YouTube.

First of all, it's very new and it isn't certain that it's popularity will insure it's success. It just might fail.
There's considerable copyright violation going on. YouTube is trying to convince members not to post copyrighted items, convince the music, video, and TV industries that it's good exposure, and appease the industry by promising to remove anything once they are notified. Don't know if that will work.
I was hesitant to link to this example below because it contains some potentially objectionable content. Nonetheless, I found it informative and representative of the sort of thing that is "good" about YouTube.

So, I'm making this separate posting. Here's an interesting six minute video clip from YouTube (NOTE: I'm not hosting this clip--I'm just pointing you to the content on YouTube).

Amiglia - Social Photo storage for Genealogists

2006-04-03T01:01:00.000-06:00

Amiglia is a new service offered via the web which is currently in Beta. I suggest you take a look--beta users get lifetime memberships.

What is it?
A way of storing photos and presenting them in a variety of different ways. The most interesting way, however, is in a family tree. You define the relationship between the photos (mom, dad, child, spouse, etc.) and it presents a flash-based family tree of the photos. Perfect for genealogy!

It also allows you to geo-locate your photos and will produce maps through Google Maps that show push buttons for where your photos were taken overlaid on Google Maps (when you click on the pushpin button, you see the related photos).

It allows video uploads (limit 5mb), imports from flickr or PhotoShop Album, tagging and searching of photos, animated slideshows (great for trips), and uploading by several easy methods, including email.

They recently added admin rights separate from upload rights, and continue to add features regularly. They even have a blog for comments and discussion on development of the site. They have a demo that's relatively easy to follow.

How Much Will it Cost?

Amiglia Basic will be free, but will be limited to seven family members who can contribute, and ceiling of 100 mb or photo storage space. $50/year expands that to unlimited family contributors and 5 gb of storage space, while $100/year removes limits altogether. There even a pro version that allows photographers (genealogists?) to set up sites for their clients, who will have a full function site free for a year, then opt to pay the appropriate fee annually thereafter.

I've set the skeleton of a site for my family at mann.amiglia.com.
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British Passenger Lists to be Online

2006-04-02T13:17:00.000-06:00

The National Archives previously announced that inwards passenger lists (BT26), 1878-1960 would be digitized and placed online (see announcement). In the case of BT26, the records prior to 1891 are sparse and cover mostly Irish ports.

Today, the British Business.Telegraph ran the announcement that 1837online has made a $4.35 million deal to digitize and place online the outbound passenger lists (BT27), 1890-1960 (see article).

While both cover mostly 20th century records, it is yet another sign of increasing availability to records. Hooray!
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Social Networking

2006-04-02T01:31:00.000-07:00

The Internet has already changed our lives. The more I look at what's happening out there, the more I feel we are on the leading edge of one of the most significant changes in history. When I first started speaking about the Internet about ten years ago, I used the following quote:

…the Internet has changed our civilization permanently and has introduced us to two completely unexpected ideas.
First, tens of thousands of people have been laboring to build the Internet, alone; in small groups; within organizations; but always like many ants in a global anthill…like the ants, they serve the common good while having no conception of the order and the compelling forces that drive their work…Deep inside us, there is a voice that we hear only subconsciously and only as a species; a voice that commands us to take these computers, connect them into networks and… communicate.

Second, when we connect computers we invariably create something that is much more than the sum of its parts… I sense that we are near the beginning of a great and important change in human affairs. Personally, I don't understand the change. Indeed, I suspect that it is beyond the capabilities of any of us to completely appreciate what is happening…there is a reason why we built the Internet and that, as human beings, we have an obligation to learn how to use it and to participate.

Hahn, Harley The Internet Complete Reference. Osborne McGraw-Hill, Berkeley, CA: 1994, p. xix.

Feeling the power of this statement, I should have foreseen the trend for social networking. It is changing the world and most of us don't really see the change. A recent posting on YouTube (social video posting service) stated "The bottom line is if you want to communicate to the youth of today, you need to be into social networking." (Demetri Martin, TrendSpotting).

In genealogy, we are trying to achieve worldwide family collaboration, a common (or social) pedigree, and a sense of community. We are well behind many other disciplines and forms of social interaction. The youth of the world are way ahead of us, of course. You've probably heard a lot lately about MySpace and the potential dangers it poses. MySpace now has 60 million users and is the second most used web site in the world (considering that number 1, Yahoo, has been around a lot longer, MySpace may soon pass them by...).

The social networking site for college students is FaceBook. FaceBook is now the seventh most used web site in the world, frequented by 6 million college students an average of six times per day. To put this in context, number 6 in the most used list is Google. Started by three students in 2004, FaceBook is now more visited than Amazon, Disney, and nearly every other web site. The founders are trying to sell the site and recently rejected an offer of $750 million. This is clearly a significant trend. (Source for statistics - comScore Media Metrix and BusinessWeek Online)

What does this mean to libraries? It means that we need to be looking now (if it isn't already too late) at how we can incorporate social networking concepts and practices into the Library of tomorrow (Library 2.0--I plan to post soon on this subject).

What do YOU think?

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Irish Newspaper Archive updated

2006-04-02T00:15:00.000-07:00

There is a collection of searchable, digitized Irish newspapers available online. It is a fee-based site, but you can register for free and get ten page views for free. After that, page views are about 1/2 Euro each. It is located at www.irishnewspaperarchive.com. A blog article about it is located at
www.researchbuzz.org/2006/03/new_irish_newspapers_archive_n.shtml

The newspapers available are:

Freeman's Journal 1763-1921
Irish Independent 1905-2003
Leitrim Observer 1923-1976
The Meath Chronicle 1897-2002
Sunday Independent 1935-2006
The Anglo-Celt 1908-2001
The Tuam Herald 1994-2000
The Connaught Telegraph 1975-2003

A Must Read Blog - Eats Like a Human

2006-04-01T23:37:00.000-07:00

Dan Lawyer created a blog for his genealogical musings. In his first four weeks, he has published six thoughtful posts, most of which have generated several comments. Rather than repeat each item, I just list them and link here:
Raising the Bar for Record Managers -
what should a genealogy program be able to do?
Give Me Context -
Factors to place our ancestors in context
Engaging Ordinary People -
How do we get average people interested in family history?
Self-citing Internet Sources -
Can't we get Internet sources to create source citation automatically?
Embedded Source Citations -
Examples of automatic source citation
Genealogical Embedded Citation Standard 0.1 (Strawman) -
Strawman of possible genealogical standard for embedded citations
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ALA TechSource | Collaboration 2.0?

2006-04-01T09:12:00.000-07:00

ALA TechSource blogger Tom Peters comments on the nature of the future Library (Library 2.0) as a place where everyone contributes to a virtual community. A thought-provoking article on collaboration as a culture. Collaboration 2.0?
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Genealogy Search Strategy: Switch from People to Places

2006-04-01T00:34:00.000-07:00

This post about how to achieve results in genealogical searches from Ancestry's 24.7 Family History Circle - Search Strategy: Switch from People to Places
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