[14402] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Current Cites, March 2002
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (CITES Moderator)
Wed May 29 19:12:42 2002
Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 14:35:27 -0700
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Current Cites
Volume 13, no. 5, May 2002
Edited by [2]Roy Tennant
The Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94720
ISSN: 1060-2356 -
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/CurrentCites/2002/cc02.13.5.html
Contributors: [3]Charles W. Bailey, Jr., [4]Margaret Gross, [5]Terry
Huwe, [6]Shirl Kennedy, [7]Leo Robert Klein, [8]Margaret Phillips,
[9]Roy Tennant
Billsus, Daniel, Clifford A. Brunk, Craig Evans, Brian Gladish, and
Michael Pazzani. "Adaptive Interfaces for Ubiquitous Web Access".
[10]Communications of the ACM (40)5 (May 2002): 34-38. - The authors
discuss personalization based on their experience in moving the [11]LA
Times to the postage-stamp world of wireless devices. Before anyone
bails out at the thought of such an exercise, the authors also point
out that their conclusions can be applied to web-based media as well.
Whatever the method of delivery, personalization will fail, the
authors stress, if it relies entirely on a user's willingness to fill
out forms, set preferences, tweak configurations, etc. Instead,
"user's interests must be inferred implicitly from actions". The
system should learn from user choices and there should be enough
flexibility built in to handle people's changing interests over time.
Equally as important, competing material shouldn't simply be filtered
out (potentially creating ghettos of awareness). Instead, it should
just show up somewhat lower on the totem pole of prioritized
presentations. Following these principles, the authors in their own
work were able to show significant improvements in usage and loyalty
among users. In other words, personalization can work. The article is
one of several from a special issue on personalization/customization
in this month's CACM called the 'Adaptive Web'. - [12]LRK
[13]Building a National Strategy for Digital Preservation: Issues in
Digital Media Archiving. Washington, DC: Council on Library and
Information Resources and the Library of Congress, 2002. ISBN
1-887334-91-2.
([14]http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub106/contents.html or
[15]http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub106/pub106.pdf). - The
[16]National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation
Program (NDIIPP) at the Library of Congress was established by
Congress in December 2000. NDIIPP has a $100 million budget, which it
will receive in stages. Its mission is to "develop a national strategy
to collect, archive, and preserve the burgeoning amounts of digital
content, especially materials that are created only in digital
formats, for current and future generations." ND IIPP asked the
[17]Council on Library and Information Resources to commission the
papers published in this document to support meetings about digital
preservation issues. A "[18]Summary of Findings" by Amy Friedlander,
which presents the results of expert interviews about key issues, sets
the stage for a fine set of papers on the preservation of digital
audio, digital television/video, e-books, e-serials, and the Web. Dale
Flecker's paper on "[19]Preserving Digital Periodicals" will be of
particular interest to librarians. To learn more about the NDIIPP,
see: Amy Friedlander, "[20]The National Digital Information
Infrastructure Preservation Program: Expectations, Realities, Choices
and Progress to Date," D-Lib Magazine 8 (April 2002). - [21]CB
Foley, John and Chris Murphy. [22]"Q&A: Bill Gates On Trustworthy
Computing" [23]InformationWeek (May 20, 2002)
(http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020517S0011) - Microsoft
has taken it on the corporate chin repeatedly due to ongoing
revelations of security holes in its various products. Apparently,
this abuse reached critical mass last January, when Mr. Gates sent out
his infamous [24]"trustworthy computing" e-mail memo to all Microsoft
employees (http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-817343.html). Microsoft
followed up with a [25]"trustworthy computing" white paper later that
month; the May 2002 revision is available here:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/craig/05-01trustworthywp.asp.
Techno-pundits and Microsoft customers, predictably, have expressed a
fair amount of skepticism about the whole "trustworthy computing"
thing. In this interview, Gates discusses his companywide initiative
and, in a wider context, talks about computer and networking security
issues in general. Many security problems were never really addressed,
he said, as computer systems moved from "inward facing" to "outward
facing" -- encompassing things like e-mail, websites and virtual
private networks. Gates talks about quality issues in software
development, testing, and research and development, touching
specifically on Windows XP. He indicates that he does understand
customer skepticism and security worries; after all, he says, "you're
about to put all your business transactions there," referring to such
things as Web Services. In this same issue of InformationWeek, there's
also a [26]Q&A interview with Microsoft's Scott Charney, "the new guy
responsible for the company's security strategy."
(http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020517S0004). - [27]SK
Frumkin, Jeremy, editor. [28]"Special Issue: Open Source Software"
[29]Information Technology and Libraries 21(1) (March 2002)
(http://www.lita.org/ital/ital2101.html). This special issue was
reviewed briefly in the Volume 13, no. 4, April 2002 issue of Current
Cites. The Open Systems Software (OSS) concept of sharing is so akin
to the basic tenet of librarianship, that this reviewer thought a
reprise look at the issue was merited. The three articles reviewed,
available in full text on the LITA website, blend well, to give the
reader a multifaceted view of the promise and the obstacles facing the
OSS initiative. David Bretthauer in [30]Open Source Software: A
History (http://www.lita.org/ital/2101_bretthauer.html) traces the
philosophy of the Open Source movement. In 1984 Richard Stallman
resigned from his position as a programmer at the MIT Artificial
Intelligence Lab in order to pursue his vision, and remain unfettered
by organizational constraints. He envisaged the development of "free
software," and a programming environment which gave expression to four
essential freedoms: Programs could be used for any purpose, they could
be modified for any requirement, and the source code for the original
or the modified versions would be freely distributed. Thus the only
restriction was that the free availability of the code be maintained.
It is important here to define the meaning of "free" in this context.
Free means the freedom to use, develop, enhance, and distribute source
code. It does not imply gratis or no fee software. Open source code
has proliferated, and yielded such important free software as Linux,
Perl, Python, Apache web server, mSQL, MySQL, and Samba. Of note, this
article contains ample notes and references for those wishing further
investigation. [31]Karen Coyle (http://www.kcoyle.net/) in [32]Open
Source, Open Standards, (http://www.lita.org/ital/2101_coyle.html)
brings OSS into the library context. Before OSS projects can achieve
success, there must exist open standards permitting the
interoperability of programs. It is interesting to note that the first
interoperability standard was that of the standardized catalog card,
adopted by ALA in 1877. Key standards that followed were ANSI Z39.2,
and the commonly accepted MARC. These now interconnect with
non-library standards including Z39.50, Electronic Data Interchange
(EDI), and hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). There is evidence that
standards successfully adopted define background technical functions,
while allowing wide flexibility of presentation. Eric Lease Morgan in
[33]Possibilities for Open Source Software in Libraries
(http://www.lita.org/ital/2101_morgan.html) funnels the Open Source
Software endeavours right down to the concerns of librarians. What do
librarians want and need in order to realize the potential and promise
of OSS. Librarians are people oriented, being primarily concerned with
collecting organizing, and disseminating information. The underlying
code of the resource-sharing infrastructure is not high on the agenda.
Librarians require a set of tools, packaged for easy installation and
use. This could provide a niche for third party software aggregators,
who could profit from the integration and packaging of OSS, all the
while leaving the source code "free" to all. - [34]MG
Hall, Danielle and Janet Swan Hill. "The Care and Feeding of Speakers
and the Spoken-To" [35]American Libraries 33(5) (May 2002): 64-67. -
As both a speaker and an audience member, I can appreciate both sides
of this article representing both perspectives. Danielle Hill
represents what audience members appreciate in speakers, and Janet
Swan Hill takes the side of the speaker -- in particular the colleague
who has been asked to speak but whom is not getting paid. Anyone who
stands up in front of an audience would do well to head Ms. Hill's
admonitions, and if you are organizing an event you will likely find
Ms. Hill's suggestions helfpul. - [36]RT
Hawkins, Brian L., Julia A. Rudy, and William H. Wallace, Jr.,
editors. Technology Everywhere: A Campus Agenda for Educating and
Managing Workers in the Digital Age EDUCAUSE Leadership Strategies No.
6, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002. - This edited collection of
essays tackles the twin challenges for colleges and universities of
both hiring and retaining skilled technical staff and creating the
curricula that can educate such individuals for themselves and society
as a whole. The first section of essays sets the stage with a review
of the supply of information technology (IT) workers in the U.S.,
identification of IT job skills and standards, and a discussion of IT
fluency. The second and last part addresses campus challenges and
solutions, including recruitment, retention, reskilling, technology
across the curriculum, and leadership challenges. Those in academe --
whether you are dependent on IT staff or are attempting to teach them
-- will find this slim volume well worth the time. - [37]RT
Kobsa, Alfred 'Personalized Hypermedia and International Privacy'.
[38]Communications of the ACM (40)5 (May 2002): 64-67. - Also from the
CACM issue on the 'Adaptive Web', this article addresses implications
for privacy of online personalization systems which basically register
every click you make. Guidelines are suggested for collecting this
information in ways that respect the rights of users. - [39]LRK
Lord, Lissa. [40]"Electronic Newsletters: The How and Why of Them"
[41]LLRX.com (May 15, 2002)
(http://www.llrx.com/features/e-newsletters.htm). - Lord, director of
electronic communication at the Leon E. Bloch Law Library, University
of Missouri at Kansas City, takes you -- in detail, with screen shots
and other illustrations -- through the development of an electronic
newsletter for her institution. Anyone facing a similar project can
learn from this article, which covers everything from the planning
stage to tracking audience response and looking toward future
possibilities. The law library's newsletter, [42]The Friday5
(http://www1.law.umkc.edu/library/friday5/), calls itself "a
multimedia sampler of electronic resources and law library activity."
The staff has kept the format simple but elegant; published each...uh,
Friday, the newsletter features...uh, five standard sections: (1) News
from the Library (2) Database of the Week (3) Government Publications
(4) Websites of Interest (5) Technology Tip. All of the websites
mentioned in issues of the newsletter are [43]collected on a single
page: http://www1.law.umkc.edu/library/friday5/5thFriday.htm. You can
read the newsletter online or sign up for an e-mail subscription. -
[44]SK
Morrissey, Brian. [45]"Can 'Deep Linking' Lead to Deep Trouble?"
[46]Internet.com Business News (May 17, 2002)
(http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article/0,,3_1138351,00.html) -
Maybe I'm just cynical, but I think the Web was a heck of a lot more
fun before the lawyers hopped aboard. The case under discussion in
this article involves [47]magazine -- http://www.runnersworld.com/ --
AKA "the 800-pound gorilla of running news," siccing its attorneys on
a couple of brothers who operate a small weblog-type site called
[48]LetsRun.com -- http://www.letsrun.com/ -- "Where We Have No Legal
Team." The brothers Johnson made a faux pas when they linked to a
Runner's World interview with 800-meter Olympic champion Peter Snell.
They linked to the "printer-friendly" version, which bypasses
you-know-what. Rodale, Inc., publishers of Runner's World, considered
this a copyright infringement and instructed its sharks to dispatch
the proverbial "stern letter." After a certain amount of fuss,
Runner's World "seemingly backed down," with its editor calling the
whole thing a misunderstanding, due to his "technological ignorance."
But don't kid yourself that we've heard the last of situations like
this. Right around the same time, [49]Belo Companies
(http://www.belo.com/), which owns the [50]Dallas Morning News
(http://www.dallasnews.com/), went after a local gadfly site,
[51]BarkingDogs.org (http://www.barkingdogs.org/) -- warning: turn
your speakers down before clicking this link). Belo's sharks told the
owner of the site that he could link only to the Morning News's home
page -- with its rich array of advertisements -- and not directly to
stories within its site. At last report, BarkingDogs.org was getting
legal help from Public Citizen, Ralph Nader's group. [52]Read all
about it at
http://dallasobserver.com/issues/2002-05-16/filler.html/1/index.html.
- [53]SK
Soderberg, Johan. [54]"Copyleft vs. Copyright: A Marxist Critique"
[55]First Monday 7(3) (March 4, 2002)
(http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_3/soderberg/). - The author
locates the current debate about copyright and intellectual property
in its historical context, as a safeguard to preserve capital, and he
analyzes the digital debate from that perspective. He is specifically
interested in the open source community and the contrarian
philosophical viewpoints of the hacker community. He argues that the
main tenets of hacker culturecreativity and technological
empowermentroughly correspond to the Marxist concepts of alienation,
division of labor, and commodification. This article is densely cited,
providing a map that simultaneously charts Marx's writings about
information along with a diverse group of non-Marxists. He suggests
that the open source and free software sectors of the digital
community may have long lasting importance that transcends current
debate about the Internet and society. He concludes that Marxist
thought offers a handy "toolbox" for critical analysis, with which we
can deconstruct the digital debate about intellectual property, even
as the boundaries shift. - [56]TH
Young, Jeffrey R. [57]"Journal Boycott Over Online Access Is a Bust"
[58]Chronicle of Higher Education (May 16, 2002)
(http://chronicle.com/free/2002/05/2002051601t.htm). - A year has
passed since a group of scientists known as the [59]Public Library of
Science (http://www.publiclibraryofscience.org/) announced their
boycott in which some 30,000 scientists worldwide pledged not to
publish in, subscribe to or serve as editors for journals that don't
offer "unrestricted free distribution rights ... within 6 months of
their initial publication." It appears that very few of the signers
followed through on their pledge and, consequently, the publishing
industry has not changed their ways. While the group never expected
much response from commercial publishers, they say they are
disappointed that society publishers' reaction was much the same as
the commercial publishers. But the Public Library of Science is not
willing to declare the boycott a failure. They say that scientists are
now more conscious of journal policies and they are already planning
to starting several alternative journals of their own including two
high-profile journals that will compete with [60]Science and
[61]Nature. - [62]MP
_________________________________________________________________
Current Cites 13(5) (May 2002) ISSN: 1060-2356
Copyright B) 2002 by the Regents of the University of California All
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References
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