I couldn’t believe one of the headlines in today’s NY Times: “News Corp. Weighs an Exclusive Alliance With Bing.” I originally thought that this was not what the title of the article meant, and there must be some mistake. However, Microsoft really has pitched an offer to the News Corporation controlled by Rupert Murdoch that would give Microsoft exclusive rights to index the news corporations daily reports.

This would be an attractive offer to most news agencies, most of which have been loosing money from customers and advertisers ever since the Internet took off. What if they only made their content available to a single search engine, or if they moved to a pay-per-index system (Microsoft, Google, and so forth would have to pay to index their content)? What ramifications would this have?

This sounds an awful lot like a monopoly if Microsoft’s Bing would be the only business able to index the News Corporation’s content. The definition of a monopoly given by Answer.com says it is,

“A situation in which a single company or group owns all or nearly all of the market for a given type of product or service. By definition, monopoly is characterized by an absence of competition – which often results in high prices and inferior products.”

This agreement sounds like a monopoly to me. I’m not sure where other vendors like Lexis-Nexis, which also indexes news content, would fall under this agreement. Would they also be excluded?

I’m surprised that the News Corporation is even considering this tactic since it seems contrary to the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics. Specifically, the preamble which states that, “Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy.” Would placing an electronic barrier (only being available to search through BING) be in the best interests of its readers and under the Professional Journalists Code of Ethics?

Here are some other problems with this arrangement:
- There would essentially be no competition between vendors, and could potentially lead to a decline in quality of information.
- How would this affect consumers? It would probably alienate some readers and advertisers, specifically those who may not use BING, but to what extent? Would this arrangement ultimately loose business to competitors and essentially become financially dependent in time on Microsoft?
- Would this really be financially beneficial to the Murdock News Corporation? Could this backfire and bring the downfall of Murdock News Corporation? Could this backfire on Microsoft and look like a way to stifle competition from Google (which it is doing)? How might this be perceived from users who basically want free information (plus free music and movies…)?
- Would other news corporations follow suit and go exclusively to rival search engines? If this would be the case, we would essentially loose a huge chunk of informational exchange and essentially miss one of the basic
- Would Twitter and other new social technologies fill in the void that the Murdock News Corporation would leave?
- How might this affect future technology; should one search engine be preferable to another? Will new technology be geared towards one search engine or another?

Read original NY Times article…

While it is relatively easy to track down shortcut keys for Macs (e.g. the official Macintosh/Apple keyboard shortcut page), I thought I would compile some additional unofficial web sites that contain useful info or present it differently. In case you’re curious how I came up with this list, I searched Delicious for “mac shortcuts” and took the top few results which are ranked by the number of people who have bookmarked a page.

Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts
(Official web site — 6,600 people tagged this page)
Provides a summary of major keys (Command key, function key, control key) at the beginning of the list with images to show what they look like. Breaks down the shortcuts into broad themes: startup keyboard shortcuts, finder keyboard shortcuts, application and other Mac OS X keyboard commands, Universal Access – VoiceOver keyboard commands, Universal Access – Mouse Keys, plus a list of additional information related to these topics (e.g. iPhoto shortcut keys).

Dan Rodney – Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts
(By Danrodney.com — 3,300 people tagged this page)
Provides a list of shortcut keys for basic Mac functions, and clearly labeled sections, plus additional applications/software: Guide to the Mac’s Menu Symbols; Finder Shortcuts; Application Switcher; Dock Shortcuts; Working with Windows; Taking Screenshots; Startup Commands; Shutdown/Sleep Commands; Dashboard; Spaces; Spotlight; Working with Text (some only work in Cocoa apps like Safari, Mail, TextEdit, etc.); Emacs Key Bindings (only work in Cocoa apps like Safari, Mail, TextEdit, iChat, etc.); Miscellaneous; Safari; Apple’s Mail.app; Apple’s Preview.app.

Mac OS X Leopard: 200+ Productivity Booster Keyboard Shortcuts
(By Usingmac.com — 3,600 people tagged this page)
Different categories are used, and for various complimentary applications (software): Exposé, Space, Dashboard and the System; Issue: Freeze; Full Keyboard Access; Finder; Search: Spotlight; Utility: Print Screen; Application: Dock; Preference: Universal Access; Boot: Start Up; Browser: Safari; Music: iTunes; Terminal; Mail: Hello from Cupertino; Front Row; Address Book; and Image Editor: Adobe Photoshop.

How to Convert a Word Document into a PDF
Easy directions for creating PDF documents with Macs (basically when you go to print a document, there’s a PDF button which give you the option of saving the document as a PDF).

[Mac] Shortcuts: Learning Curves
(By Rixsteps.com — 3,100 people tagged this page)
This lists the basic shortcut commands with the keys involved. It is a very minimalistic web page–just the basics!

Keyboard shortcuts in OS X
(By Creativebits.org — 1,600 people tagged this page)
Includes nice images of major keys at the top of the page (Shift, Function, Control, Alt/Option keys), but contains the same info as the Mac web site with the same categories, although not all of the shortcuts listed from the official Mac web site.

This just in from the official Google Blog…

Starting [November 17], Google Scholar will allow you to find and read full-text legal opinions from U.S. and state district, appellate, and supreme courts using Google Scholar. You can search for cases (Planned Parenthood v. Casey), topics (desegregation), or other keywords. If you try the query separate but equal, your search results will include links to such familiar cases as Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, as well as opinions from less familiar cases. ResourceShelf has more details….
Official Google Blog, Nov. 17; ResourceShelf, Nov. 17

Does literature inspire art, or does art inspire literature? That’s easy to answer–art and literature inspire each other. I recently ran across a new form of poetry called “Flarf.” According to TheStar.com, “Flarf is the poetry of Googled search terms.” I would like to broaden the definition to include any search term instead of Google exclusively.

I find this form of poetry interesting in that it takes a snapshot of an individual’s or groups’ thoughts, and tells a little about culture and society. Here is an example of a Flarf:

Riddles; is curry an acid or a base; are dreads sexy; the difference between a sea and an ocean; fish that clean other fish; the life and times of Scrooge McDuck; what’s my zip code; where does the money go? -By Kate Dawson and Ori Barbut, from ‘Searchbar History Vol. 1′

It would be very interesting to look at what a librarian searches, especially those at the reference desk because you never know what questions are around the corner. The difference would be fewer normal language phrases such as “is curry an acid or a base.” My Flarf as a librarian might look something like this:

The Journal of Communication; United States and advertising; bandwidth shapers; Doing Justice; The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison; Prison; Prison; The Abandoned Ones…

It is kind of poetic, isn’t it? While we are talking about art, how about cover art of books? Io9.com investigated historical cover art for a few well-known science fiction books. Among the books investigated are 1985, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, Day of the Triffids, War of the Worlds, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (there were some great illustrations for this book). Take a look at these if you have a chance.

Patrons viewing pornography in libraries has become a large issue with the introduction of the Internet. Although the problem with porn is mostly a public library issue, academic libraries, school libraries, and special libraries have all had their share.

Patrons in the past could challenge racy material that was in print collection. That is, they could pull an items from the shelves, and physically place it in the hands of library staff for review. The Internet allows quick and easy access to digitized materials, including those images deemed inappropriate by many library users. It is easy to “hide” what one views by switching screens or closing a browser by a click of a button.

And librarians are often stuck between a rock and a hard place. What do you do when a patron comes up and complains about a person viewing porn on the computer next to them? Do you infringe upon the individual’s privacy to view and read whatever he or she wants? Is the individual viewing illegal child porn (how does one tell without viewing it)? Where does the institutional policy come into play? Should porn be blocked by filters? Should it be self-policed by other patrons (react to complaints)? Should librarians ignore complaints and say that our professional values prohibit the filtration information? If there should be filters, who does the filtering and what are the boundaries?

I had to laugh at a quote from News-Record.com’s story entitle “Library Computer Users Viewing Porn Anger Parents.” It describes a “bandwidth shaper,” such as NetLimiter, which identifies web sites by categories — including pornography — and allow the library to throttle access to specific categories and sites.

When the device finds a computer streaming video from a porn site, the bandwidth is slowed to 1 kilobit per second — slower than old-fashioned dial-up — which would cause the screen to give an error or timed-out message.

“It’s not filtering it,” said Tommy Joseph, manager of technology and reference at the library. “It’s discouraging it.”

So perhaps librarians been asking an unnecessary question: “Should patrons be allowed to view porn or not?” Well, under these guidelines, patrons still technically have access to the sites, but won’t really be able to use it. Doesn’t this sound like a filter?

We’ll see how bandwidth shapers stand the test of time!

ALA posted a nice article about Google’s revised legal terms for scanning and distributing orphaned books. Basically, it says that Google will not include foreign titles in its Google Books project, which is not too surprising.

According to the ALA article,

The removal of foreign books is the most significant change to the agreement: The Wall Street Journal estimated November 16 that the elimination of millions of foreign titles would reduce the number of works covered by the settlement by at least half.

Strategically, it is smart of Google to start small and grow over time. This is a huge project, and ambitions are high. If Google Books successfully takes off in the US, perhaps other countries will change their mind.

It also links to the original 2008 agreement as well as the new terms for foreign copyright holders.

The NY Times also published an article on this topic recently.

While other libraries are shipping library materials to patrons, similar to the NetFlix business model, the Hayward Public Library in Ohio is going a different route: pay a $2.99 monthly fee to check out 3 items at one time, and never worry about overdue fines.

The idea is intriguing, and I suppose it would appeal to those who have perpetual overdue fines (or perhaps a huge amount of fines). However, for the majority of library users who return materials on time, this would not be cost effective. Why pay $2.99 a month ($35.88 dollars per year) when you don’t have to pay anything at all if you return things on time?

At my public library, which charges $1.00 per video and a hefty charge for overdue items, this would sound appealing (especially if the $1.00 movie fee were removed!). It would be a known amount instead of an unknown amount that is suddenly sprung on you.

According to Mercurynew.com, the library director said,

“if only 2 percent of library users opt into the program, it will more than match $94,000 the library took in from late fees last year. And the other 98 percent of users who don’t opt to go fines-free will still be putting in money the old-fashioned way”

It is an interesting concept which has the support of the local city council to begin the program before Christmas. I am curious how it will turn out, but doubt that they will have 2% of user involvement initially, but I may be wrong as the call of overdue fines becomes louder.

View original source.

I had to post this…

The Librarian movie poster.

The Librarian series, which stars Noah Wyle as Flynn Carsen in an Indiana Jones knockoff, will produce a fourth movie that will likely be released in 2010. The previous movies include “Quest for the Spear” (2004), “Return to King Solomon’s Mine” (2006), and “Curse of the Judas Chalice” (2008).

Librarians, archivist, library staffers… Lets just say anyone who enjoyed the first three movies will look forward to the next release. I will!

Yes, you’ve read the title of this post correctly.  An engineer at UCLA has created a cheap way ($10 of off-the shelf hardware) to turn ordinary cellphones into microscopes by using the camera function of cellphones and laptops.  While this technology won’t replace high tech microscopes, it will benefit those who collect samples away from laboratories. When I read this article, I had to post it!

Read the original NY Times article.

For practically the beginning, Google has collected information about individuals to analyze, store, and occasionally provide to third party vendors. Although asked countless time from various people and organization about what kind of data Google collects about individuals, the corporation has kept tight-lipped.  Or it has until yesterday at Spain.

Google’s unveiled a new product called Google Dashboard yesterday (Thursday) in Spain.  Supposedly, it will give users “more transparency and control.”

I haven’t had the time to explore Google Dashboard yet, so I’ll post more when I do. Until then, I just took a screen shot to show what info is being disclosed about individuals.  It is clear that not everything is disclosed through this new service, although it appears that Dashboard will continue to evolve and incorporate more Google services/products in time.

Visit Google Dashboard: https://www.google.com/dashboard/

Read original NY Times article

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/google-offers-users-a-peek-at-stored-data/

For those who seek to explore Google Wave, check out this guide:

The Complete Guide to Google Wave is a comprehensive user manual by Gina Trapani with Adam Pash.

http://completewaveguide.com/guide/The_Complete_Guide_to_Google_Wave

 

Chapter 1	Meet Google Wave
	Find out what Google Wave is and what problems it solves.
Chapter 2	Get Started with Wave
	Set up your Wave account and create your first wave.
Chapter 3	Manage Your Wave Contacts
	Find and add people and groups to collaborate with in Wave.
Chapter 4	Find and Organize Waves
	Tag, file, search, and filter waves.
Chapter 5	Dive Deeper into Wave
	Add rich content to your waves like maps and photo slide shows.
Chapter 6	Master Wave’s Interface
	Navigate Wave from the keyboard and customize your Wave interface.
Chapter 7	Wave Gadgets
	Add interactive content to your waves with gadgets.
Chapter 8	Wave Bots
	Automatically update the contents of your waves with bots.
Appendix A	What Wave Can’t Do
	It’s not just you. See what’s NOT working in the current version of Wave, and what features the Wave team has promised are Appendix B Contribute to The Complete Guide to Google Wave In the spirit of Google Wave, this guide is a collaborative effort. We need you (yes, you) to help revise and expand this guide as Wave evolves. If you just can’t get enough of Wave, see also our growing compilation of Wave-related links and video clips from across the web.

Here is some interesting news on the international level.  According to ReadWriteWeb.com, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement has drafted regulations largely in secret on Internet hosting;  Internet Service Providers (ISPs) would be required to regulate the content of the web sites to which they provide service.

This push by several international governments (and major corporations) has been kept low, so there has been little press or coverage on Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). In a brief search within major U.S. and world publications (non-English & English speaking publications, web publications, news press, T.V. and radio broadcast transcripts, legal news and blogs), I found just over 400 “publications” that mention the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).  Below is a definition of ACTA international trade agreement.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a proposed plurilateral trade agreement which is claimed by its proponents to be in response “to the increase in global trade of counterfeit goods and pirated copyright protected works.”^[1] The scope of ACTA is broad, including counterfeit physical goods, as well as “internet distribution and information technology”.^[2]

… ACTA would establish a new international legal framework that countries can join on a voluntary basis^[1] and would create its own governing body outside existing international institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) or the United Nations.^[4][12] Citing a fact sheet published by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and the USTR’s 2008 Special 301 report the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) states that the goal of ACTA is to create a new standard of intellectual property enforcement beyond the existing standards in the TRIPs Agreement and to increase international cooperation, including the sharing of information between signatory countries’ law enforcement agencies.^[2]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement

What this means is that there could quite possibly be a new global entity that monitors and decides what you can and can’t post on your professionally hosted web site (primarily those who do not host your own server in your house).  If you post any content that is under copyright or the intellectual content belongs to someone else, say Disney for example, and you post it publicly without their permission, your internet service provider would be legally obligated to remove the content that is under question of copyright violation without proof of the violation. There also appears to be a section completely on prohibiting Digital Rights Management workarounds.

This really has huge implications for any internet user (those trying to access digital information), and for anyone who post content online to make it publicly viewable.  It also tosses what we now use as copyright law out the window!  Potentially, this could be very beneficial for the entertainment industry who is suffering from pirated music and movies, the business industry for those companies who have been suffering from cheap knock-offs, and the information industry those who want to post information that might not be legally theirs to post.

Coming from a librarian’s perspective, this is also very scary on many levels because it touches on privacy (who posts what), freedom of speech (what one can or can not say), consumerism (establishing internationally sanctioned monopolies that essentially go outside of U.S. laws), who policies the activities of individuals or corporations, who controls the consequences, and so on.

There have been many issues dealing with copyright laws, and these laws are far from perfect.  However, the warning flags start going up when issues are being discussed behind closed doors.

For more information, see:

• White House shares the ACTA Internet text with 42 Washington insiders, under non disclosure agreements
  http://keionline.org/node/660

• Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement

• U.S./International Copyright Treaty Leaked, Trouble Ahead for ISPs & Users
  http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/copyright_treaty_leaked_trouble_for_isps_and_in.php

Starting in 2010, URLs will being to include non-Latin text. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) voted last week for these changes, and representatives of this organization stated that this is a major milestone since the organizations inception in 1989.

For as long as the Internet has existed, it has used Latin characteristics. So what should we expect to see in the near future? URLs will begins to incorporate characters from the Russian, Chinese, Arabic alphabet.

It will make evaluating sources more challenging for those who do not use the alphabets. However, it will be likely that existing web sites will keep their current URL address(es) and incorporate newer “alternative” URLs that compliment and direct global traffic to existing or parallel sites.

Sampling music through Google and Facebook

Here is an unofficial announcement by the NY Times that both Google and Facebook plan to offer music samples through streaming music sites, like Lala, Imeem, and iLike. This move is a no-brainer decision on Google and Facebook’s part. This relationship is a win-win for all parties involved as long as Google and Facebook don’t “improve” the product and come up with their own streaming music services (this is less likely, but still very possible).

Facebook and Google Expected to Offer Music
By BRAD STONE
Published: October 21, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO — Music fans are about to get two new ways to find and sample songs on the Web, as Google and Facebook introduce new features on their services.

Google, the search giant, plans to announce a music initiative at an event it will hold at the Capitol Records building in Hollywood next Wednesday, according to three people briefed on the details, who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the service before it was announced.

The service will give users a more efficient way to find, learn about and sample music after they search for information about bands, albums or songs, said a person who has seen an early demonstration…

Through relationships with streaming music sites, like Lala, Imeem and the MySpace division iLike, users wanting to sample a song will be presented with a pop-up box from one of the music partners that will play at least a 30-second sample, and in some cases, the whole song.

Read more from the NY Times…

One of the big issues for libraries in the future will be the adoption of e-books. There has been a subtle cultural shift in reading habits among our society; people are reading more through electronic access. This is not to say that individuals are reading less from printed materials. However, what I am saying is that people seem to be reading digital materials in addition to reading what they normally read in print. This is from my personal observations of people’s reading habits instead of anecdotal evidence.

I believe part of this shift is due to the increased use of mobile devices, but also to how new generations of readers are exposed to digital documents while they are growing up. As younger patrons grow up with these technologies readily available to them, the acceptance and expectation of these technologies develops into a social norm; if one grows up reading online, chances are good that you’ll continue to read online when older.

Wouldn’t this be a benefit for publishers if readers consume more information? One would think, but there are concerns from publishers that libraries won’t buy as many printed books and vie for the digital copy instead. Publishers say that ebooks do not take up shelf space,and they don’t have to worry about the physical wear and tear of an item. They do not necessarily have a faster turn around from customer to customer since most vendors have set amount of limited simultaneous access per book (e.g. one person at a time), and currently no way to “return” books early for other patrons to use (the loan expires after a set amount of time).

The later is one of my pet peeves–why have artificial access limits? This is just a mechanism for libraries to order more “digital copies” of a book (more money in the pocket of the vendor). Vendors, take note! You’ll have a lot more value to your product if these kinds of restrictions are removed, especially if you’re one of the few vendors who offer unlimited access to materials.

So why is there concern over people reading materials in digital format in addition to or perhaps instead of the print equivalent? Here is another important question to ask. Are the digital consumers the same group of people that are switching to print to electronic format, or are they an entirely different demographic unit (e.g. new library patrons that would not normally set foot in a library building)?

Libraries will continue to collect information whether in print or electronic format, but the real concern is for the publishing industry’s sheer existence should authors begin to publish materials on their own instead of going through the traditional routes. With the birth of the Internet, there has been a move to take the middle man (publishers) out of the equation, and to sell books and information directly to individuals.

Will publishers become an endangered entity?