It’s easy being green if you know where to find ideas and inspiration. A new resource is Green Libraries, an online site for creating an environmentally sensitive library. Created by Monika Antonelli, a reference/instruction librarian at the Memorial Library at Minnesota State University Mankato, the web site contains a small but growing collection of materials on building sustainable libraries, from design ideas to building certification. It also includes a brief directory of environmentally savvy libraries, which Antonelli expects to triple from ten to 30 in the coming months.
More than 100,000 old books previously unavailable to the public will go online thanks to a mass digitisation programme at the British Library. The programme focuses on 19th Century books, many of which are unknown as few were reprinted after first editions. The library believes online access to the titles will help teachers. “If there are no modern editions teachers cannot use them for their courses,” said Dr Kristian Jensen, from the British Library. “What we can read now is predetermined by a long tradition of what has been considered great literature,” he added. At full production approximately 50,000 pages per working day will be scanned.
Helping the developing world isn’t as easy as sending money and experts. Local values and customs have to be considered, and ultimately, the community has to become able to guide itself. M. Bernardine Dias is the director of Carnegie Mellon University’s TechBridgeWorld, a group that partners with developing communities to create sustainable technological solutions to problems within those communities.
Knowledge management just seems inordinately complicated sometimes, doesn’t it? Like there are so many disparate pieces to the puzzle that we’re not even sure what they all are sometimes. I was doing some thinking over the past week about the reasons for this complexity — and what strikes me as a major reason is the amount of other disciplines that knowledge management gets its fingers into. Within these disciplines, there are all kinds of complex concepts and subdisciplines as well. I decided to sit down and write out as comprehensive of a list as I could, along with a short description of that concept, discipline or subdiscipline’s connection to knowledge management.
Pop quiz: How much does it cost to go a museum? And I don’t mean cost in a global bottom line sense—I mean how much does it cost to walk up to the admissions desk and buy a ticket? How much for a family? How much for a student? How much for an adult? The answer, of course, is that it varies. Museums can range from free to about $30 for admission. There are secondary admissions fees, like parking, and optional fees, like for IMAX shows, traveling exhibits, and other add-ons. It’s often confusing to wade through the choices: do I want the underwater pony show or the artist-led splatter tour? But even more than this confusion, I believe museums suffer from a lack of consistent expectations when it comes to price and purchase options.
When it comes to innovation, Judith L. Estrin thinks it’s helpful for big companies to think of themselves as farms, as reported by Scott Thurm in The Wall Street Journal (9/24/07). Judith made the comment in response to a question about how to “get people to think beyond 18 months if the whole company is focused on 18 months?” This was her response: ” … In thinking about large companies, think of them as farms. And what you’re trying to do is grow rows of corn. You don’t want surprises, you want it to work well, you apply incremental innovation to be as productive as you can.”
Many universities use online virtual worlds as a teaching tool, but Wellington’s Victoria University is the first to take the plunge in New Zealand, allowing a pHd student to teach a design class in virtual reality. The class teaches ‘machinima’ or machine made cinema, where storyboards, sets and scenes all drawn on computer instead of paper.
Technophiles are tapping into a movement known as “steampunk,” where computers, keyboards and other gadgets are re-imagined as if built during the Victorian era. WSJ.com’s Andy Jordan reports.
The vision behind the new DSpace Foundation is to promote and increase open access to scholarly works by using the open source DSpace platform for storing, managing, and distributing digital collections, and by advocating for open access. Here, Campus Technology interviews Michele Kimpton, executive director of the nascent nonprofit created this past July by MIT and HP as a successor to their joint DSpace project begun in 2002.
The Boston Library Consortium, Inc. (BLC) has announced a partnership with the Open Content Alliance (OCA) to build a freely accessible library of digital materials from all 19 member institutions. The BLC is reportedly the first large-scale consortium to embark on such a self-funded digitisation project with the OCA. The BLC/OCA project seeks to ensure that materials digitised will remain free and open to scholars and the public. The Consortium will offer high-resolution, downloadable, reusable files of public domain materials. Using Internet Archive technology, books from all 19 libraries will be scanned at a cost of just 10 cents per page. Collectively, the BLC member libraries provide access to over 34 million volumes.
A new website called Peer-to-Patent intends to harness the power of online collaboration to streamline patent review. By creating a community around each application, the site facilitates public discussion and lets people upload relevant information. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is currently involved in a limited trial of Peer-to-Patent, with the hope that it will bring openness and transparency to a review process that was previously limited to communication between the applicant and the examiner vetting the patent.
New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram today unveiled an Internet Safety Icon designed to allow users of social networking sites to swiftly report inappropriate, abusive or potentially illegal activities. The Report Abuse! icon was created by the Office of the Attorney General in cooperation with a number of social networking sites. It is designed to make it easier for Internet users to identify and quickly report abuses on-line, and establishes best practices which define how social networking sites should handle reports of abuse.
Orderly, pornography-free and safe for children, “meet-me,” an online interactive virtual Tokyo, is Japan’s answer to “Second Life.” Or so its creators hope. Kunimasa Hamaoka, who oversees “meet-me” at digital marketing company Transcosmos Inc., is banking on the cultural differences between Japanese and Americans to compete against the world’s top virtual community.
Facebook, the second-largest social-networking site, must respond within “a few weeks” to requests by state attorneys general that it do more to protect kids from sexual predators, says Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. “If Facebook slams the door, we would consider legal options,” says Blumenthal, who has negotiated with Facebook. He says the company must verify users’ ages, among other things, and he expects a response within a month.
Microsoft Corp. has introduced a redesign of its search engine joining a wave of Web sites that have revamped their results pages to get users the information they want more quickly. The changes are Microsoft’s latest attempt to gain ground on Mountain View’s Google Inc., which dominates the search industry despite major investments by a raft of competitors.
Death, apparently, isn’t an excuse for not paying a library fine at the Harrison County, N.Y., Public Library. Just ask Elizabeth Sharper, who was fined four bits while returning a book that had been checked out by her mother who died before she could return it, The Journal News in White Plains, N.Y., reported. “I was in shock,” Schaper said. “This has rocked me to my core.”
Understanding how people use online maps allows data acquisition teams to concentrate their efforts on the portions of the map that are most seen by users. Online maps represent vast databases, and so it is insufficient to simply look at a list of the most-accessed URLs. Hotmap takes advantage of the design of a mapping system’s imagery pyramid to superpose a heatmap of the log files over the original maps. Users’ behavior within the system can be observed and interpreted. This paper discusses the imagery acquisition task that motivated Hotmap, and presents several examples of information that Hotmap makes visible. We discuss the design choices behind Hotmap, including logarithmic color schemes; low-saturation background images; and tuning images to explore both infrequently-viewed and frequently-viewed spaces.
According to a new report released by AMR Research, U.S. companies will spend $73B on knowledge management software in 2007, and spending will grow nearly 16% to an average of $1,224 per employee in 2008. As a growing number of needs and initiatives are left unsupported by established enterprise applications, the demand for KM technologies has increased, leading to record-level activity in knowledge management; content management; navigation, search, and retrieval; and collaboration platforms.
A contact suggested to me recently that there is no point in studying technology at university anymore. So why the turn against computer science, especially given an escalating skills crisis where the UK IT industry is growing five to eight times faster than other sectors and needs 150,000 new entrants each year? My contact said it is because firms no longer demand programmers and developers; they require business-focused graduates capable of becoming technology leaders.
Enterprises must invest more heavily in staff training and social engineering tests to ensure corporate data cannot be compromised by outsiders who trick their way into the company, according to experts at this year’s ISSE event in Warsaw. Sharon Conheady, a consultant in social engineering for consultancy Ernst & Young, explained that the scale of the problem is often underestimated by firms, because many are unaware it is even going on. She revealed criminals are using tools such as Google and company web sites to research and gather information about a particular firm, before conning their way into the building with the aim of stealing sensitive data.
Social networking site Facebook, which signs up more than a million new fans every month, has changed tack and begun to publicly list members’ profiles on search engines such as Google and Yahoo! “This move transforms Facebook from being a social network to being quasi-White Pages of the web,” said IT expert Om Malik.
Back in July the NLPC examined the extent of copyrighted material being hosted on Google Video and released a “Top 50″ list of copyrighted movies. In the latest inspection of the site, conducted from September 10 to September 18, the NLPC uncovered 300 additional instances of copyrighted films, including 60 movies released this year. Google maintains that it respects the rights of copyright holders and is developing tools for copyright holders to identify and remove their work from the site.
Everyone wants to be social these days. Given the hype around social networks and social bookmarking, it’s little wonder that search wants to be social too. The problem is that when you refer to “social search,” the odds are that whoever you’re talking to will have a very different idea of social search than you do.
At the beginning of this summer’s reading program for kids at Manross Library in Bristol, CT, Maureen Eaton, assistant branch manager, had kids sign a contract with her to read every day during the summer session, and if they did, she would color her reddish hair purple.
As a consequence of technological developments libraries need to change their strategy and their activities in a fundamental way. The innovation process necessary to implement these changes pervades all the library’s activities. Because of its comprehensiveness and its pervasiveness it demands special attention of the library’s management. And poses a number of conditions on the organisation of the innovation process. The paper analyses the complexity of the innovation process and describes the consequences for the organisation of innovative projects.
New user profile features are set to be added to Digg.com Wednesday, marking the first in a series of new social networking capabilities that will be added to the site. Officials said the new capabilities will let Digg.com users better interact and share content.
The user profile will allow users to personalize their Digg identity and to interact with people they designate as “friends” on the site, said Jay Adelson, Digg’s CEO. The update also lets content be filtered by friends of a user, he said. The new features are aimed at providing new ways for users to sort through the 7,000 to 8,000 stories submitted to the site every day, he added.
In the next 10 years, about one-in-three companies expect 20% or more of their workforce will be eligible to retire, according Monster’s recent national survey of 550 HR managers. Most companies recognize that an exodus of talent threatens their business in the coming years, yet few have knowledge retention programs to deal with a brain drain caused by retiring baby boomers, according to a survey by Monster Worldwide.
Rumors of Google’s plans to create a virtual world that rivals that of Second Life have popped up once again over the weekend. The company could now be collaborating with Arizona State University to test the 3D social network, which may be tied into Google’s current applications of Google Earth and Google Maps.
CoreSpeed, LLC., an Atlanta-based provider of branded online community and enterprise social media platforms, in conjunction with the launch of its online community and enterprise social media learning lab, and in response to the hype around Web 2.0, social media, community, Enterprise 2.0, etc.; has outlined a set of proposed standardized definitions for online community and enterprise social media.
THE first Edinburgh, Scotland Festival of Libraries to be held in the Capital is set to see the Assembly Rooms transformed into a massive library for a day.The event is being organised by the Edinburgh Libraries and Information Services Agency (Elisa), and representatives of more than 40 Edinburgh-based library and information services are expected to take part.
Venture capitalist Fred Wilson ponders whether good times of Web 2.0 will be squashed by an economic downturn. Economic uncertainty aside, he points out that there is a huge supply of new tech companies, including a lot with less than six degrees of separation and “slight twists on ideas that are now five years old.”
Languages are now becoming extinct faster than birds, mammals, fish or plants. Of the estimated 7,000 unique languages spoken in the world today, nearly half are likely to disappear this century, with an average of one lost every two weeks. Losing a language often means losing the knowledge and history of an entire culture, especially when there is no written record available. For this reason, the National Geographic Society and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages have engaged in an impressive undertaking to identify and record the most endangered languages in the world.
According to the New York Times, the Standardized Chapel Library Project, an initiative of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, intends to bar access to library materials that, according to the Bureau of Prisons, ”discriminate, disparage, advocate violence or radicalize.” The initiative was created in response to concerns that prisons were becoming recruiting grounds for militant Islamic and other religious groups. The policy requires chaplains to remove books from chapel libraries unless the book appears on a list of 150 approved texts. The program has resulted in the elimination of thousands of religious texts from prison chapel libraries that were purchased by the prisons, or donated by churches and religious groups.
“More than one in forty children in the United States has a parent in prison. … This site provides free information sheets designed for people serving children of prisoners and their caregivers.” Features pamphlets on topics such as visiting mom or dad, jail and prison procedures, common stress points, and tips for fostering trust and safety. Also includes a glossary and links to related material. From the Family and Corrections Network.
This series of essays covers topics related to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, including historic sites and buildings associated with the signing, and biographical sketches of the signers of the Declaration, such as John Adams, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, and Thomas Jefferson. Provides text and history of the Declaration and suggested reading. Based on a book that was issued by the National Park Service in observance of the U.S. bicentennial.
A free (with registration) video instructional series in German for college and high school classrooms and adult learners; 48 fifteen-minute video programs, audio CDs, and coordinated books. Follow the story of Professor Bob Di Donato and Marion, his assistant, as they create a German course using a “German studies” approach. They weave together minidramas set in Germany, interviews with native speakers, and documentary footage on history and culture, all of which help increase fluency in and comprehension of the language. The narratives, presented in natural, authentic German, cover topics such as school, employment, travel, and personal relationships. Time codes on the videos make it easy to find specific segments. Levels 1 and 2 address vocabulary, topics, and structures for basic communication in German; level 3 continues many of these topics but goes into greater depth. The series is also appropriate for teacher professional development.
Martha Anderson, acting director of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, talked about digital preservation during the Sept. 7 broadcast of “Ahead of the Curve,” a program focusing on high technology. Anderson laid out the critical need for preservation and discussed the recent Preserving Creative America partnerships.
View the video here (a short promo will run first)
I’ve always found genealogy boring. But it’s about to get exciting, very exciting, and for everybody. Millions of people around the world spend hours tracing their “roots” as far back as they can. I’ve always suspected that people are really searching for self-identity. If they can learn their country of origin or discover descent from someone famous, they might be able to think more highly of themselves. They can, say, watch the Irish Day Parade with a new sense of entitlement. Unfortunately, many uncover unpleasant family secrets. Instead of finding aristocrats and royalty, people are likely to discover war deserters, criminals and illegitimate children. Even more common is to find family origins in countries not part of the family lore. Genealogy isn’t for wimps.
Since 1999, the editors of Technology Review have honored the young innovators whose inventions and research we find most exciting; today that collection is the TR35, a list of technologists and scientists, all under the age of 35. Their work–spanning medicine, computing, communications, electronics, nanotechnology, and more–is changing our world.
The surface Web consists of tens of billions of pages in over 80 languages and is growing rapidly. Beneath this surface Web, lies a deep Web of much greater size. Tens of thousands of merchants offer millions of products. Complexity, size, and rate of expansion combine to make finding information and products on the Web a significant challenge. The ‘user,’ now participates as an ‘innovator’ and ‘contributor,’ adding to the size and content, but not necessarily the structure, of the Web. Today, we are still in the early stages of the digital information age, with few opportunities to greatly improve the ways in which the information seeker finds information. Some of the key technologies needed to find, discover, extract, publish, share, or supply information, while making sure that the online world does not turn into a primary place for information leaks, include: Semantic Computing (making the web meaningful), Internet Economics (understanding the commercial needs of the users).
NYPL is working with Google to offer a portion of its collection online via Google Book Search. The items being digitized in this project are chosen based on the following criteria: they are in the public domain (published before 1923) and they are in good enough physical condition to withstand scanning. The items are being scanned in their entirety and will be available to the public for free.
What happens to poetry in the Digital Age? In one of the first academic works in the field, Swedish researcher Maria Engberg has studied how the ability of the computer to combine words, images, movement, and sounds is impacting both writing and reading.
The computer smiley symbol recently celebrated its 25th birthday. The sideways face used in billions of emails was invented by an IT expert in Pittsburgh, US, reports The Sun. Prof Scott Fahlman was the first to use a colon followed by a hyphen and a close bracket to form a smiley in a computer message.
comScore released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the search marketplace. Among core search engines in August 2007, Google Sites remained the top search property with more than 5.5 billion core searches conducted, representing a 56.5 percent share of the search market. Time Warner Network was the only other core search engine property to increase share, up 0.1 share point to 4.5 percent, with 441 million searches.
From the blog Narrative Assets - I’m currently in the market for a cellphone, laser printer and digital voice recorder. Although there are plenty of options out there, I find the array of choices to be overwhelming. By the time the salesperson has finished describing all the features, I wonder if the item is even capable of performing its original intended task!.
International travelers concerned about being labeled a terrorist or drug runner by secret Homeland Security algorithms may want to be careful what books they read on the plane. Newly revealed records show the government is storing such information for years. Privacy advocates obtained database records showing that the government routinely records the race of people pulled aside for extra screening as they enter the country, along with cursory answers given to U.S. border inspectors about their purpose in traveling. In one case, the records note Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Gilmore’s choice of reading material, and worry over the number of small flashlights he’d packed for the trip.
A new company called Cognitive Code has built software that it believes will let everyday gadgets talk with humans. At the Techcrunch40 conference in San Francisco, the startup unveiled a developer’s studio with a set of algorithms that convert strings of words into concepts and formulate a wordy response. The developer’s studio could let businesses, such as cell-phone manufacturers and toy makers, use the technology to add conversational abilities to a product.
The Library of Congress has awarded a $590,000 grant to Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Stanford University, University of Maryland and Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life, to explore the issue of digital preservation of video games and virtual worlds. The Preserving Creative America Initiative will fund the Preserving Virtual Worlds project, administered by the Library of Congress under the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIPP).
The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) is pleased to announce Banned Books Week activities for librarians and the general public in virtual worlds Second Life, Teen Second Life and on social networking sites MySpace and Facebook. ALA is working with other library partners to provide an interactive experience centered on Banned Books Week, September 29-October 6, 2007, to help librarians and others to feel comfortable in social networking spaces and to reach out to new audiences. Partners include Alliance Library System, Alliance Second Life Library, TAP Information Services and the new ALA membership group Virtual Communities and Libraries.
Total minority enrollment at the nation’s colleges and universities rose by 49 percent between 1994 and 2004 to more than 4.8 million students, while the number of white students during the same period increased by 6 percent to 10.6 million students, according to the American Council on Education’s (ACE) Minorities in Higher Education 22nd Annual Status Report: 2007 Supplement.
The opinions expressed in the Information Innovation Exchange are not necessarily those of Long Island University (LIU) and/or the College of Information and Computer Science (CICS).
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computer smiley symbol recently celebrated its 25th birthday. The sideways face used in billions of emails was invented by an IT expert in Pittsburgh, US, reports The Sun. Prof Scott Fahlman was the first to use a colon followed by a hyphen and a close bracket to form a smiley in a computer message.
