Google Advertisement

Here is a cute little Google advertisement that  aired during the 2010 Superbowl.  It is entitled “Parisian Love,” and is supposed to be about an American who finds love in Paris.  It appears to have been posted on YouTube November 19, 2009.

"Parisian Love" -- Click to watch video

Profound Implications for Google in Italy: Google is Liable for Content Posted by Users

There has been a lot of bad press about Google recently, with the Chinese hackers (not necessarily connected with the Chinese government), anti-trust lawsuits in Europe, protests about the various implications of the Google Book deal with publishers & authors.  Now a legal case in Italy has weakened the once solid foundation of Google’s identity as an information distributor in Italy and potentially around the world.

If you are unfamiliar with the case, the trial centers on a video uploaded to YouTube which shows a teen with Autism (also Down’s Syndrome) being bullied by four boys at a school in Turin. The video was watched 5,500 times (according to sfgate.com) within the two months it was originally posted to YouTube.  Google officials pulled the video from YouTube two hours after being notified by the Italian police (according to money.cnn.com). The boy’s father and an advocacy group for people with Down syndrome complained the video violated privacy protection laws, and the Italian court agreed.

So why is this is news so big for Google as well as potentially other search engines like BING?

Google has always assumed the role as a distributor of information. It indexes information that is available on the web and makes it searchable by using keywords and phrases and using complex algorithms to return the results.  Google says that it does not provide content–internet users do the content contributing.  Since Google does not provide content, it does not fall under the same regulatory category as the news media and should not be held liable for the content that its users post.

The Italian court disagrees, and said that Google does provide content, is responsible for the content its users post to its various services such as YouTube, and should therefore be subject to government regulation (in Italy).

On the Official Google Blog, it was announced that Google will appeal the decision.  Matt Sucherman, VP and Deputy General Council of Europe, Middle East and Africa stated that,

[The decision] attacks the very principles of freedom on which the Internet is built. Common sense dictates that only the person who films and uploads a video to a hosting platform could take the steps necessary to protect the privacy and obtain the consent of the people they are filming. European Union law was drafted specifically to give hosting providers a safe harbor from liability so long as they remove illegal content once they are notified of its existence. The belief, rightly in our opinion, was that a notice and take down regime of this kind would help creativity flourish and support free speech while protecting personal privacy. If that principle is swept aside and sites like Blogger, YouTube and indeed every social network and any community bulletin board, are held responsible for vetting every single piece of content that is uploaded to them — every piece of text, every photo, every file, every video — then the Web as we know it will cease to exist, and many of the economic, social, political and technological benefits it brings could disappear.

So if the European Union law is not honored in Italy, all host providers could be held liable for the content that its users post online from within Italy.  Companies will more than likely choose not to host non-commercial content, and the free flow of information that Italy has enjoyed to date from its general populous will diminish greatly.  Is is also ethical to hold host providers legally responsible for content that users upload?

I suspect that most people expected Google to walk out of the courtroom free of charges instead of three top executives being convicted and handed suspended six-month sentences. The news from Italy sent shock waves around the world, and it has been interesting to view the variety of news headlines on this topic.

- Google Europe: A No Good, Very Bad Week (link)

- Google Exec’s are arrested in Italy for “GOOGLING IT”! (link)

- Italian conviction of Google execs could aid traditional media (link)

- Google Feels Noose Tighten in Italy, Brussels, China, US (link)

- Fascism alive and well? Italian court rules against Google (link)

- Larger Threat Is Seen in Google Case (link)

- Google Executives Convicted by Italian Court: In unprecedented ruling threatening free speech and the entire web (link)

- Europe’s Got More Problems Than Just Greece (link)

- Google’s Case in Italy Was Always Lose-Lose (link)‎

Fourth Librarian Movie

I had to post this…

The Librarian movie poster (source: tvovermind.com)

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!

Post Update 3-8-10

Apparently, a lot of people are interested in when the fourth movie will be released.  No news yet as to when the fourth movie will appear.  Right now the producers are writing the script, then they will need to cast and do pre-production stuff before the actually filming takes place (see below for details).  I’m guessing that it will take at least one year, so we might see it come to theaters (yes, I said theaters!) in 2011.

I also realized that I didn’t include my original source of info above–my most sincere apologies!  My original source came from the official ALA email list in which the following was posted, if you want to read more:

A new Librarian movie in 2010, @ your theater
Clarissa writes: “The first Librarian TV movie with Noah Wyle appeared in 2004 and was called Quest for the Spear. The second was in 2006 and was called Return to King Solomon’s Mines, and the final one (or so we thought) aired in 2008 and was called The Curse of the Judas Chalice. Producer Dean Devlin recently announced that a fourth Librarian movie will be released in theaters. No word yet on the date, but since shooting will occur this year, chances are it will be released sometime in 2010.”…
TV Overmind, Nov. 8

TVovermind mentions an announcement by the director Dean Delvin for a fourth movie. It basically says that there will be a fourth movie, and it will be released as a movie in theaters opposed to how the first three movies appeared on cable television’s TNT channel (http://www.tvovermind.com/tv-news/the-librarian-tv-series-to-become-a-movie/13022).

I turned up two references to an interview with the producer which was posted January 8th & 9th of 2009 (http://www.cliqueclack.com/tv/2009/01/08/the-librarians-next-adventure-your-movie-theater/ http://community.livejournal.com/librarian_films).  The producer was asked where the series was headed, given its success and whether it will ever go to the big screen, and the producer Dean Delvin replied:

“We’re in the process right now of writing the script,” Devlin told Deb in the interview. “Were hoping some time later this year to start shooting the first Librarian feature movie.” Maybe Noah Wyle didn’t make such a bad move after all.

With the so-so reception the last Indiana Jones movie got (aliens and swinging through trees with monkeys — I mean, come on!), it’s possible that something like this might be a welcome “replacement” for it. Then again, have you seen the National Treasure series? Yikes.

“We’re a little more family friendly than the Indiana Jones franchise,” Devlin continued, “but it’s a good time to let this character flourish.”

Resident CliqueClack Librarian expert, Rich Keller, had this to say about the series: “For an action-adventure television series it was good. Cheesy but good. Everyone involved looked to be having a good time filming the series. The third installment was probably the best of them all.”

I searched the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) among other places and didn’t find any scoops on Noah Wyle, Dean Delvin, Noah’s character Flynn Carsen, or the new Librarian movie–only previous Librarian movies. The TNT Librarian web sites (Quest for the Spear, Return to King Solomon’s Mines, and Curse of the Judas Chalice) also didn’t have any info, but it does have a link to a graphic novel of which you can preview 8 pages.

I’ll post any more current info on this page…

Google’s Opt Out Feature

Here is a link to a funny little satire video that hits on Google’s privacy policy.

Google Opt Out Feature Lets Users Protect Privacy By Moving To Remote Village

Video Journals

As we see the proliferation of videos online, I continue to wonder how this will affect print resources. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and many other technology corporations believe that print is on the way out. Humanity has has a long history of oral communication, and video is an extension of this form of communication. While video does not allow for automatic feedback as a person-to-person conversation allows, it allows for virtual presence that combines both audio & visual elements.

I recently ran across an older article from 2007 that I had read before about a peer-reviewed video journal called Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE). At the time, I thought it was an intriguing concept, and something to keep an eye on in case it took off. I don’t know of too many small liberal arts colleges that subscribe to this resource, but I think this would be useful tool for larger research institutions in which time is a limiting factor among lab instructors and assistants.

There is a great educational value in this medium, since some videos already exist for lab instruction, and I am a little surprised that these type of videos are not already posted on YouTube. Some common techniques exist already such as frog dissection, but nothing overly technical. I see part of the reason as reliability (posting incorrect info that might cause harm), as well as controlling the flow of info (perhaps “secret” techniques from published sources).

At any rate, I really like the idea of a video journal. Click here to view a video from the video journal JoVE.

YouTube’s Impact on Culture

Here is a fascinating presentation by Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. Michael gave a talk at the Library of Congress about YouTube and its role in the participatory culture.

He explains how one of his videos, Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us, became very popular in just a few days and how this popularity took him by surprise. The video was remixed, translated, it was the starting point for a conversation at a global level. It is roughly an hour in length.

Video in Wikipedia?

Technology Review recently posted info about Wikipedia’s plan to add multimedia into its site.

Within two to three months, a person editing a Wikipedia article will find a new button labeled “Add Media.” Clicking it will bring up an interface allowing her to search for video–initially from three repositories containing copyright-free material–and drag chosen portions into the article, without having to install any video-editing software or do any conversions herself. The results will appear as a clickable video clip embedded within the article.

Read more

Alternative Search Engines

Hongkiat.com posted a list of 100 alternative search engines.  The advantage of using one of these niche-specific search engines is that is zeroes in on the specific content you want, and excludes much of the irrelevant & excessive info you don’t need.  Below are the major areas in which these resources specialize.

- Ebook & PDF Search Engines
(Highlights in this genre include Comic Seeker, Free Ebooks, Google Books, )
- Audio & Music Search Engines
(Highlights in this genre include BeeMP3, Find Sounds, and SkreemR–I like the names of these!)
- Video Search Engines
(Highlights in this genre include Hello Movies, which searches NetFlix, Hulu & more simultaneously, Blinkx, and ClipBlast)
- RapidShare Search Engines (file sharing)
(Highlights in this genre include Rapid Share, Files Pump, and RS Finder).

Read more from Hongkiat.com
Read more from Read, Write, Web

Enhanced Digital Images and Videos

Those who do graphic design or work with images & video regularly will be extremely interested in new software to enhance images. MotionDSP Inc. will release a much cheaper version of the Ikena (about $7,700), called vReveal (about $50). The professional software of Ikena is mainly used by forensic & police departments to sharpen images for law enforcement purposes, such as make blurred license plates readable in blurry photos.

vReveal will not do as much as the full version of Ikena, but it will be able to stabilize shaky, remove graininess & pixelation, improve low resolution, brighten dark images & video, sharpen blurred videos, and reduce noise from home video. According to the New York Times, MotionDSP has technology, now being tested, to clean up live video as it streams to the viewer.

Visit the vReveal website
Read more from the NY Times

YouTube Videos and Privacy

It is a little surprising to hear that someone posted their birthing process online. This puts a whole new spin on the phrase “family video,” and a potentially limitless audience. While there are potential risks to posting this kind of info, such as ID theft and attempting something without professional medical assistance, there are a lot of benefits too.

Unites people with similar interests and experiences. It can be educational to show what real childbirth is like. Home births, for example, were common a century or two ago before this activity was moved to modern hospitals. However, as people become more equipped with knowledge, there has been a move to keep the birth process at home once again.

It seems like people in today’s society, especially in western cultures (e.g. the United States) value their personal privacy increasingly less. They are okay with posting personal video as long as they decide if and how the information is delivered. In addition, they are more likely to participate, if they feel they are contributing their experience to better society (this statement is my personal opinion & not factual).