"In August 1991, Sir Tim Berners-Lee created the first website. Fourteen years on, he tells BBC Newsnight's Mark Lawson how blogging is closer to his original idea about a read/write web."
BBC News. Berners-Lee on the Read/Write Web. Aug. 9, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"There's more to online social networks than matchmaking, and South Korea's Cyworld is showing the way.
"The online service blends homepage building and social networking with a host of other online activities, including Sims-like role-playing."
Jonny Evans. Koreans Find Secret Cybersauce. Wired News. Aug. 8, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Here’s my prediction. The increasing popularity of blogs and RSS feeds will drive an increase in open-access professional journal publishing and will force many traditional, print-based publishers to consider offering at least some form of electronic distribution.
"The reason being is that the online open-access model can reach a wider audience at a faster rate than traditional print publishing can – and blogs and RSS feeds enable this to happen even more."
The Industrial Librarian. Why Blogs & RSS Feeds Will Help Drive Open-Access Journal Publishing. Aug. 1, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The blogosphere is continuing to grow, with a weblog created every second, according to blog trackers Technorati.
"In its latest State of the Blogosphere report, it said the number of blogs it was tracking now stood at more than 14.2m blogs, up from 7.8m in March."
BBC News. One Blog Created 'Every Second'. Aug. 2, 2005.
See also:
Technorati Weblog. State of the Blogosphere, August 2005, Part 1: Blog Growth. Aug. 2, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"For roughly a decade, people have used role-playing online games to conduct parallel lives. Raise another family. Start a new business. Build your own city. It's all possible in these virtual worlds.
"Now, some economists and social scientists say these Internet worlds could be a new type of laboratory to study economic behavior, such as how consumers respond to inflation."
Tom Abate. Economists to Explore World of Online Games. SFGate.com. Aug. 1, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Seeking to expand its lineup of business team collaboration products, WebEx on Monday announced that it was acquiring privately owned Intranets.com for $45 million in cash.
"Both companies are 'pioneers and leaders in the software as a service business,' said WebEx CEO Subrah Iyar."
John Pallatto. WebEx Expands Collaboration Line with Intranets.com Buyout. eWeek. Aug. 1, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Knowledge is open source. It cannot be curtailed and has to be freely available.
"The concept of open source is not new. It is a subversive ideology that has been surfacing every now and then, setting it's mark on the pages of history."
Shankar Iyer. Tearing Down Those Knowledge Walls. Financial Express. July 31, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"One of the features of the appalling attacks in London this month has been the extraordinary range of material we have received from our readers.
"The contributions of our readers have not been a sideshow, they have been at the heart of our coverage.
"It's hardly something to celebrate at a time of such alarm and uncertainty, but there has without question been another step change in the relationship we have with our readers, their comments and pictures."
Pete Clifton. From the Editor's Desktop. BBC News Magazine. July 29, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The nomination of Judge John G. Roberts to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court fueled feverish activity on dozens of Web sites and blogs Wednesday.
"The Supreme Court nomination quickly became the most popular search topic on Technorati.com, a service that says it monitors more than 13.6 million Web logs."
Frank Barnako. Partisans, Start Your Web Postings. MarketWatch. July 20, 2005.
See also:
Page Rockwell. So We Have a Nominee. What's Next?. Salon.com. July 20, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: Salon.com normally requires a paid subscription, but you can view articles if you register for a free day pass.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Microsoft introduced a second beta version of its business intelligence package for servers on Tuesday. Dubbed Microsoft Office Business Scorecard Manager 2005, the test version of the product, formerly code-named Maestro, is being made available for free download at the company's Web site."
Matt Hines. Microsoft Launches Second BI Beta. News.com. July 19, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
K. Matthew Dames, managing partner of Seso Group Digital Information Advisors and the executive editor of SNTReport.com and Search & Text Mining Report, is this month's speaker for SLA's Virtual Seminar series. Dames will present the second part of a two-part series on digital collaboration projects for information professionals, "Launching A Digital Collaboration Project." The second session is Webcast live at 2:00 EST on July 20.
(The first session was Webcast on July 6, and can be viewed via an SLA Replay.)
Attendance & Registration
Want to view Dames' presentation live? Check the SLA Virtual Seminar page for more information. If you have any additional questions, e-mail SLA at learning@sla.org or call the Professional Development Center at (703) 647-4925.
This session will be taped and available for viewing within one week of the Webcast.
Description
Whatever you call it – digital collaboration, social software, social networking – working across the Web is about more than technology or devices. Ultimately, it is about developing a community of practice where people readily share their information and knowledge, regardless of distance.
Many clients and end-users will suggest that the trend toward using digital collaboration lessens the need for librarians and other information professionals. Instead, the opposite is true: online information sharing increases the need for librarians as facilitators, researchers, and knowledge managers. With some work and initiative, technology-savvy Info Pros can position themselves inside their organizations as critically important team members at a time when their value is being questioned.
This two-part series looks at the tools and issues involved in creating an effective digital collaboration environment, and shares some ideas on how best to establish a digital collaboration initiative within an organization. The first part of the series, part of SLA's Virtual Learning Series, will explain the tools and terminology of digital collaboration, and how different organizations are using these tools to improve productivity and knowledge sharing.
Slides
K. Matthew Dames. Launching A Digital Collaboration Project. (.pdf, 1.8 MB) July 20, 2005.
Coming in August 2005
Stephen E. Arnold. The Google Legacy (Tetbury, Gloucester: United Kingdom. Infonortics, 2005)
Webliography
The American Customer Satisfaction Index.
Functioning Form. Battle for the Web OS. July 12, 2005.
Fred Vogelstein. Gates vs. Google: Search and Destroy. Fortune. May 2, 2005.
Charles Ferguson. What's Next for Google. TechnologyReview.com. January 2005.
Relax, Everything Is Deeply Intertwingled. Weblications. Dec. 20, 2004.
Troutgirl. Google Is Good for Web Dev. Dec. 18, 2004.
Kuro5hin. Web-Apps Are the Legacy of the Future. Oct. 25, 2004.
Jon Udell. Under Gmail’s Hood. InfoWorld. Oct. 22, 2004.
Kottke.org. GoogOS, the Google Operating System. April 6, 2004.
Topix.net Weblog. The Secret Source of Google's Power. April 4, 2004.
Tim O'Reilly. Inventing the Future. O'Reilly Networks. April 9, 2002.
Martha K. Heyman. Building Successful Relationships with IT Professionals. Information Outlook. April 2001.
PaulGraham.com. The Other Road Ahead. Sept. 2001.
Adam Bosworth. Microsoft's Vision for XML. Infoloom. No date.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Networking firm LinkedIn will announce the release of LinkedIn for Groups on Tuesday, its third premium service since its launch in May of 2003.
"LinkedIn Jobs, launched in March as a social networking Web site, is hoping to capitalize on several premium services that, in addition to its relationship powered job board, are expected to bring the company to profitability by early 2006.
"The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company said the latest services will be aimed at power users like recruiters, analysts and researchers with several price and feature options available."
Tim Gray. LinkedIn Launches Premium Service. InternetNews.com. July 19, 2005.
See also:
Kevin Newcomb. LinkedIn Adds Group Features. ClickZNews. July 19, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Yahoo announced Friday that it has established a research lab with the University of California at Berkeley.
"Yahoo Research Labs-Berkeley will begin operations in August and concentrate on new technologies for search, social and mobile media."
Dawn Kawamoto. Yahoo, UC Berkeley Team on Research. News.com. July 15, 2005.
See also:
Verne Kopytoff. Yahoo Cements UC Partnership. San Francisco Chronicle. July 15, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Forwarding a quirky email or an amusing link or video attachment to colleagues may seem innocent enough, but it is the modern equivalent of ritual gift exchange and carries with it similar social implications, say US researchers.
"Benjamin Gross at the University of Illinois, US, and colleagues studied email forwarding behaviour by conducting informal interviews among email users. He says forwarding emails plays a vital role in constructing and maintaining modern social ties, despite the phenomenon receiving scant attention from social scientists."
Will Knight. Email Forwarding Amounts to Ritual Gift Exchange. NewScientist.com. July 12, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The ripples of anxiety from last month's landmark Supreme Court ruling on peer-to-peer software haven't quite made it to Jonathan Nilson's home in Tallahassee, Fla.
"Nilson, a programmer who has been working on peer-to-peer software called Shareaza for several years, says the loose band of developers who share responsibility for the open-source project haven't been dissuaded from their work by the court ruling, which is casting a dark legal cloud over the future of companies such as Grokster and LimeWire."
John Borland. Open-source P2P Projects Keep Swapping. News.com. July 15, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"IBM is extending an academic outreach program to give universities access to some of its cutting-edge research free of charge.
"The company plans to announce on Thursday a license that will let academics use and distribute 25 software-development technologies hosted on IBM's alphaWorks emerging-technology Web site."
Martin LaMonica. IBM Opens Research to Academia. News.com. July 13, 2005.
See also:
Red Herring. IBM Taps Into Universities. July 13, 2005.
Jim Wagner. IBM to Send AlphaWorks to School. InternetNews.com. July 13, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"It was inevitable: Bloggers who previously wrote endlessly about everything from politics to tech tips to how to fry an egg on a hot sidewalk can now take their commentary, advice and random experiments to the next level by filming and broadcasting their work, thanks to the latest web trend -- video blogging.
"Video blogs -- also known by their shorter, clunkier name, vlogs -- are blogs that primarily feature video shorts instead of text."
Katie Dean. Blogging + Video = Vlogging. Wired News. July 13, 2005.
See also:
Neeraj Saxena. Video Blogs Move Full Stream Ahead. Economic Times. July 12, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Newspaper publishers face economic problems common to many information industries: the fixed costs of creation are large, and the incremental costs of serving additional users are small. This leads to competition that results in prices so low they do not cover overall costs.
"Price deflation leads to firms collapsing and consolidating. Market power stabilizes or raises prices. And then, another wave of entry occurs, often through new technology, and a new cycle begins.
"In the process, the information industry is becoming among the most unstable of business sectors."
Eli Noam. Bad News for News. FT.com. July 14, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"When former Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael K. Powell watched television coverage of the London bombings last week, he noticed that most of the significant pictures didn't originate from professional photographers employed by news agencies. They came from witnesses at the scene using cell phones and digital cameras to document the tragedy.
"'Journalists are trained not to be emotional, like a doctor doesn't fall in love with his patients,' Powell said. 'But people experiencing a tragedy can convey what actually happened while at the same time express deep emotion and engage in spirited storytelling.
"'A photo of someone climbing up through train wreckage is extremely powerful. A reporter rolling up to the scene behind a police line can rarely give you that.'"
Adam L. Penenberg. Technorati: A New Public Utility. Wired News. July 14, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"IBM plans to add blogging capabilities to the next version of its Workplace collaboration and development software, the company said on Wednesday.
"The company offered the details of its blog-related plans as part of a preview into the upgrades that will arrive sometime in August, when the company is expected to release its Workplace 2.5 and Workplace Designer 2.5 offerings.
Matt Hines. IBM Tacks Blogs to Workplace. News.com. July 13, 2005.
See also:
Dennis Callaghan. IBM Previews Enterprise Blogging Tools. eWeek. July 13, 2005.
Martin LaMonica. IBM Plays up Workplace Suite. News.com. Jan. 24, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"VoIP provider Skype and wireless hot spot operator Boingo Wireless will unveil a new initiative Tuesday that combines each company's respective technologies.
"Skype is among the most popular providers of voice over Internet Protocol software for making inexpensive or free phone calls using the Internet. Boingo Wireless, founded by EarthLink creator Sky Dayton, makes available Wi-Fi technology to dispense high-speed Internet access (it's currently used in about 13,000 locations)."
Ben Charny. Skype, Boingo Tie up in Phone Deal. News.com. July 11, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The next version of the Opera Web browser will support peer-to-peer (P2P) technology, which has been the focus of a lot of legal discussions recently.
"A technical preview of Opera 8.02 released Thursday allows users to download BitTorrent files directly from the browser rather than downloading the file and using a client application like Azureus to download the full file."
Jim Wagner. Opera Adds BitTorrent. InternetNews.com. July 7, 2005.
See also:
John Borland. Browsers Add BitTorrent Support. News.com. July 8, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Online yellow pages are great for finding nearby businesses, but nothing beats a recommendation from a local in making a decision to patronize a business.
"Judy's Book is a site that's blending the ideas of local search and social networks, tapping into the knowledge and experience of residents of cities across the U.S. to provide a guide to local businesses and services."
Chris Sherman. Local Search, From Locals. SearchEngineWatch. July 11, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Even as the last shockwaves of Thursday’s horrible bomb blasts ripped through London, the first photographs and eyewitness accounts had begun to circulate. But it wasn’t through the mainstream media that many of these stories and pictures first gained traction. Through photo sharing Web sites like flickr.com and individual and group blogs, the citizen journalist played as vital a role in disseminating information this week as any brand-name media outlet.
"Take, as a case study, the most instantly iconic photo to emerge from the bombings: a hazy picture of a man in a crowded, eerily lit subway tunnel, holding a handkerchief to his mouth. That picture was taken on a camera phone by Adam Stacey, by no means a professional photographer, who happened to be on the subway train that was hit in a tunnel outside the Kings Cross tube station."
Brian Braiker. History's New First Draft. Newsweek. July 9, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"IBM is expected to announce a partnership Monday with CenterPoint Energy, a utility based in Houston, to develop broadband services to be delivered over electric power lines.
"The companies will open a technology center in Houston to test and demonstrate the technology for consumers and other utility providers. CenterPoint Energy will also set up a pilot program in about 220 Houston homes that will run through August."
Ken Belson. I.B.M. and Partner May Offer Broadband From a Wall Plug. News.com. July 11, 2005.
Related:
Marguerite Reardon. Broadband's Power-line Push. News.com. July 11, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Dell and Napster are teaming up in a bid to help colleges alleviate network bottlenecks caused by students stealing digital music. If successful, the project may help boost Dell's paltry market share in portable music players.
"Dell says that its college and university customers have complained that excessive illegal downloading of music was causing a slowdown in the performance of their networks.
"Napster will make its entire music library available to cache, or store, on Dell servers at colleges and universities that participate in the program."
Lisa DiCarlo. Dell, Napster Target College Downloads . Forbes.com. July 7, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"News and blogs sites in the United Kingdom were hard hit as word of multiple explosions in London Thursday morning had concerned surfers looking for the latest word.
"The four blasts, which occurred between 8:51 and 9:47 London time, claimed a growing number of lives, and injured scores more. Officials surmised it was an al'Qaeda-style terrorist attack timed to coincide with the start of the G8 summit in the U.K.
"Once again the blogs proved themselves an invaluable resource for first-hand accounts and images of the incident, as well as other blog owners who extended their best-wishes to those involved."
Jim Wagner. Web Traffic Spikes After London Bombing. InternetNews.com. July 7, 2005.
See also:
Vauhini Vara. Bloggers and Photographers Chronicle Chaos in London. WSJ.com. July 7, 2005.
BBC News. Blogs Respond to London Blasts. July 7, 2005.
Libe Goad. Flickr Pics Capture London Terror. PCMag.com. July 7, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"SourceLabs Inc., a service provider for open-source software, Wednesday announced a new community-based catalog of open-source projects that also serves as a wiki and features RSS technology.
"Seattle-based SourceLabs introduced the new technology, called Swik, as a service to the open-source community, said Brad Silverberg, managing partner at venture capital firm Ignition Partners—which has invested in SourceLabs—and a SourceLabs board member.
"'It's primarily for developers and end users to find out about all the different open-source projects, including documentation, download sites, reviews, descriptions, tips, tricks, all that kind of stuff,' Silverberg said."
Darryl K. Taft. SourceLabs Open-Source Catalog Boasts Wiki, RSS Support. eWeek. July 6, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Microsoft Corp. and France Telecom said on Wednesday the first product from their multimedia partnership was likely to be ready within a year and that they were confident of success in the venture.
"The world's largest software maker and France Telecom held a joint news conference in Paris to highlight that the partnership would initially focus on mobile phones using wireless technology and on bringing together voice, video and data over networks."
Reuters. Microsoft, France Tel Upbeat on Partnership Hopes. July 7, 2005.
See also:
Associated Press. France Telecom, Microsoft in Net Phone Deal. MSNBC News. July 7, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The Bloggers' FAQ on Labor Law addresses legal issues arising from workplace blogging, including union organizing, protections for political blogging away from the workplace, and whistle-blogging."
Electronic Frontier Foundation. Bloggers' FAQ: Labor Law.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
K. Matthew Dames, managing partner of Seso Group Digital Information Advisors and the executive editor of SNTReport.com and Search & Text Mining Report, is this month's speaker for SLA's Virtual Seminar series. Dames will present a two-part series on digital collaboration projects for information professionals, with the first live session being Webcast at 2:00 EST on July 6. and the second live session being Webcast at 2:00 EST on July 20.
Attendance & Registration
Want to view Dames' presentation live? Check the SLA Virtual Seminar page for more information. If you have any additional questions, e-mail SLA at learning@sla.org or call the Professional Development Center at (703) 647-4925.
This session will be taped and available for viewing within one week of the Webcast.
Description
Whatever you call it – digital collaboration, social software, social networking – working across the Web is about more than technology or devices. Ultimately, it is about developing a community of practice where people readily share their information and knowledge, regardless of distance.
Many clients and end-users will suggest that the trend toward using digital collaboration lessens the need for librarians and other information professionals. Instead, the opposite is true: online information sharing increases the need for librarians as facilitators, researchers, and knowledge managers. With some work and initiative, technology-savvy Info Pros can position themselves inside their organizations as critically important team members at a time when their value is being questioned.
This two-part series looks at the tools and issues involved in creating an effective digital collaboration environment, and shares some ideas on how best to establish a digital collaboration initiative within an organization. The first part of the series, part of SLA's Virtual Learning Series, will explain the tools and terminology of digital collaboration, and how different organizations are using these tools to improve productivity and knowledge sharing.
Slides
K. Matthew Dames. Digital Collaboration: Tools & Terms. (.pdf, 2.7 MB) July 6, 2005.
Webliography
Covad. "The Ringing" (Flash movie; Flash Player required.)
Salesforce.com: Hosted customer relationship management tool, with contact management, marketing campaign budgeting and analysis, and mobile and wireless capability.
Bloglines: Hosted RSS and news aggregator.
37Signals: Developer of several hosted business tools, including Backpack (a collaborative online planner and to-do list), and the highly regarded Basecamp (hosted project management application).
Thomas Bleha. Down to the Wire. Foreign Affairs. May/June 2005. ("Once a leader in Internet innovation, the United States has fallen far behind Japan and other Asian states in deploying broadband and the latest mobile-phone technology.")
Heather Green and Robert D. Hof. Picking Up Where Search Leaves Off. BusinessWeek Online. April 11, 2005. ("The time-saving trend of "tagging" is luring legions of Web surfers -- and Yahoo! ")
Daniel Terdiman. Folksonomies Tap People Power. Wired News. Feb. 1, 2005. ("The job of tags isn't to organize all the world's information into tidy categories. It's to add value to the giant piles of data that are already out there.")
Technorati: A blog index.
SNTReport.com: Seso Group LLC publication that finds, filters, summarizes important digital collaboration news six days each week.
Search & Text Mining Report: Seso Group LLC publication that finds, filters, summarizes important news about the business, technology, and law of search and search engines. Published five days each week.
Micro Persuasion: Blog of public relations executive Steve Rubel.
GM FastLane: "The FastLane blog is where you can come to read the latest, greatest musings of GM leaders on topics relevant to the company, the industry and the global economy, and -- most of all -- to our customers and other car enthusiasts."
Charlene Li. Blogging: Bubble or Big Deal? Forrester Research. Nov. 5, 2004.
Mark Pilgrim. What Is RSS? O'Reilly XML.com. Dec. 18, 2002.
Jeff Tyson. How Instant Messaging Works. HowStuffWorks. No date.
Robert Kaye. Next-Generation File Sharing with Social Networks. O'Reilly Open P2P. March 5, 2004.
Miriam Rainsford. A Musician's Take on File Sharing, DRM, and Copyleft Licensing. O'Reilly Open P2P. June 10, 2003.
Wikipedia. Founded in 2001, Wikipedia bills itself as "the free-content encyclopedia that anyone can edit."
JotSpot: A Wiki web application development through a " Microsoft Word style editing" interface. For a demonstration of JotSpot's capabilities, please see Jon Udell's Flash movie. (Flash Player required.)
Federal Communications Commission. Voice Over Internet Protocol: Frequently Asked Questions. May 24, 2005.
vSkype: Skype plugin that allows users to see who they are talking to while sharing applications, spreadsheets or photos in real time. (Windows only)
IPDrum. Its IPdrum Mobile Cable connects Skype to a mobile telephone via the mobile telephone network - allowing Skype users true mobility and worldwide calling for local rates.
Heather Wilson. Gaming for Librarians: An Introduction. (.pdf) VOYA. February 2005.
K. Matthew Dames. Commentary on New iTunes Cell Phone. SNTReport.com. July 5, 2005.
Fred Vogelstein. Gates vs. Google: Search and Destroy. Fortune. May 2, 2005. ("Bill Gates is on a mission to build a Google killer. What got him so riled? The darling of search is moving into software—and that's Microsoft's turf.")
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Although Linus Torvalds may be the person most people associate with the Linux operating system, Jon 'Maddog' Hall, with his hippie-length white hair and Santa Claus beard, is a close second as the public face of the open-source movement.
"As executive director of nonprofit Linux International, he travels the world talking about the value Linux and open-source software can offer to large enterprises."
Joab Jackson. The Real Cost of Open-source Software. GCN. July 5, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"When he has writer's block, John Battelle, author of the forthcoming book 'The Search: The Inside Story of How Google and Its Rivals Changed Everything,' keeps on writing. But not his book manuscript. Instead, he goes straight to his blog (battellemedia.com).
"Mr. Battelle, a founder of Wired and The Industry Standard magazines, sometimes makes quick notes on the blog about a topic related to his book, and other times posts longer essays. 'Writing for the blog is more like having a conversation,' Mr. Battelle said.
"For years, book authors have used the Internet to publicize their work and to keep in touch with readers. Several, like Mr. Battelle, are now experimenting with maintaining blogs while still in the act of writing their books."
Tania Ralli. Dear Blog: Today I Worked on My Book. The New York Times. July 4, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Do weblogs inevitably mean corporate chaos and PR disaster? Adam Hill finds that while some firms are running scared, others have joined the conversation.
"Kensington Locks, the US-based PC peripherals supplier, may not be the world's best known brand. Yet in May, millions of web- surfers read one blogger's demonstration of how its locks for securing laptops could be opened with just a piece of cardboard.
"It followed hot on the heels of another blog involving bicycle lock manufacturer Kryptonite. Last year a blogger wrote that its locks could be opened with a biro. Both are examples of a new PR headache to which some PROs do not seem to know how to respond."
PR Week. Reputation Management: Blogs Cast a Shadow. July 1, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Live 8 has proved to be a triumph for technology, with millions participating in the event via the web and mobiles.
"Almost 27 million people texted in their support for a petition asking G8 leaders to double aid and cancel debts for the world's poorest countries.
"Millions watched the event online and recordings of Sergeant Pepper were on sale an hour after being sung live. But videos and audio of many of the acts were also available via BitTorrent file-sharing software."
BBC News. Net Fuels Live 8 Extravaganza. July 4, 2005.
See also:
Lars Brandle. Live 8 Shatters Records. Billboard Radio Monitor. July 4, 2005.
Michelle Meyers. Live Aid for the Internet Age. News.com. July 2, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Describing a future where everyone and every system is highly connected through wireless devices and Web services, Bill Gates said Friday there is still room for improvements in search engines and the Internet.
"Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect was speaking before a conference hall here packed with over 7,000 IT professionals, government officials and students. Gates is in Singapore for the day, following a trip to Thailand.
"'We have the availability of information wherever you go, delivered by the breakthrough of wireless networks' in the office and in public areas, he said."
Eileen Yu. Gates Calls for Better Search Technology. News.com. July 1, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Next on board the blogging bandwagon: e-tailer
"Online merchants are starting to test Web logs, which are akin to online diaries, in hopes of giving their stores more personality and giving customers a reason to return even when they're not in the mood to buy. But for companies like Bluefly.com, eHobbies, Ice.com and others, blogs are so far afield from typical retail functions that they will take time to master."
Bob Tedeschi. Blogging While Browsing, But Not Buying. News.com. July 4, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Microsoft's 'CRM Next' is still not shipping, but when it does, it will have a new name and a bunch of new features, company executives said. And it will be offered to partners via Service Provider License Agreements that will enable hosting partners a way to pay as they go.
"First, what had been called both Microsoft CRM 2.0 and then CRM 2005, will officially be dubbed Microsoft CRM 3.0 and is still set to release to manufacturing in the fourth quarter, said Brad Wilson, general manager for Microsoft CRM.
"Wilson said the new naming convention isn't just window dressing, but reflects major additions to what had been planned for this delayed release."
Barbara Darrow. Microsoft Renames 'CRN Next,' Adds Hosted Licensing Option, Tightens Ties To Outlook/Office/SBS. CRN. July 5, 2005.
See also:
Matt Hines. Microsoft Previews Next-generation CRM. News.com. July 5, 2005.
Dennis Callaghan. Microsoft Skips to 3.0 for CRM. eWeek. July 5, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Sprint and Motorola said yesterday they would work together to develop technology for next-generation high-speed wireless technology.
"Known broadly as WiMax, these services are expected to allow people with laptops, personal digital assistants and other portable devices to connect to the Internet at speeds comparable to the broadband connections used in homes and offices.
"Sprint has a particular interest in WiMax technology. If its proposed merger with Nextel is approved, the combined company will hold a significant chunk of the needed spectrum in major cities to run the service."
Ken Belson. Sprint and Motorola Plan a Joint Effort on Wireless Technology. New York Times. July 1, 2005.
See also:
Colin C. Haley. Sprint Gets Lined up Behind WiMAX. InternetNews.com. June 30, 2005.
Ben Charny. WiMax Begins to Gel at Sprint. News.com. June 30, 2005.
To see WiMax related news, please link WiMax Networking News.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The Internal Revenue Service has awarded ChoicePoint Government Services a contract worth as much as $20 million to serve as the agency's public records provider for batch processing projects, according to the company.
"Under a five-year contract, ChoicePoint will provide the IRS with access to its suite of custom data solutions. IRS officials will use ChoicePoint’s public records data capabilities to support customized data retrieval requirements.
"ChoicePoint provides public records information about a person, asset or location, a company spokesperson said. The information can include current and former addresses, property ownership records and bankruptcy, lien or judgment information."
Doug Beizer. IRS Search for Public Records Access Ends with ChoicePoint. GCN. June 28, 2005.
See also:
Rich Smith. IRS Chooses ChoicePoint. The Motley Fool. June 27, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Federal agencies must use the next-generation Internet service known as Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6) by June 2008, the White House Office of Management and Budget announced Wednesday.
"The office said it would issue a policy memorandum dictating full federal 'IPv6' compliance in an effort to spur its deployment throughout government agencies.
"The Defense Department currently is the only federal body to have made strides in implementing IPv6. Due to this 'lack of government-wide progress' and concerns about the 'complexities of transition,' OMB will release a 'comprehensive transition planning guide,' OMB Administrator Karen Evans said in written testimony for the House Government Reform Committee."
Chloe Albanesius. OMB: Agencies Must Use Advanced Internet by 2008. GovExec.com. June 29, 2005.
See also:
Brad Grimes. OMB: Agencies to Implement IPv6 by June 2008. GCN.com. June 29, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The government announced Thursday an 11-nation crackdown on Internet piracy organizations responsible for stealing copies of the latest 'Star Wars' film and other movies, games and software programs worth at least $50 million.
"FBI agents and investigators in the other nations conducted 90 searches, starting Wednesday, arresting four people, seizing hundreds of computers and shutting down at least eight major online distribution servers for pirated works.
"Called Operation Site Down, the crackdown involved undercover FBI operations run out of Chicago, San Francisco and Charlotte, N.C., and included help from authorities in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom."
Mark Sherman. Feds Target Internet Piracy Organizations. San Jose Mercury News. June 30, 2005.
See also:
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Justice Department Announces International Internet Piracy Sweep. (Press Release.) June 30, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Yahoo has enhanced its My Web personal search service to enable users to share their personal Web index of pages and links.
"My Web 2.0, which is in test (or beta) mode, was launched late on Tuesday and will be available on a first-come first-serve basis to a limited number of users.
"Yahoo launched the first version of My Web in April to let users save and annotate Web pages and keep a history of their search queries as well as the search results they click on."
Juan Carlos Perez. Yahoo Introduces 'Social' Search Engine. PCWorld. June 29, 2005.
See also:
Yahoo Search Blog. Search, With a Little Help From Your Friends. June 28, 2005.
Chris Sherman. Yahoo Integrates Personal & Social Search with MyWeb 2.0. SearchEngineWatch. June 28, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The FBI is rolling out a program that allows federal law enforcement agencies and state and local police forces to share information throughout local regions of the country.
"The Regional Data Exchange works through local law enforcement offices and allows state, local and tribal law enforcement investigators access to federal information and intelligence data relevant to investigations within their jurisdictions."
Daniel Pulliam. FBI Launches Regional Data Sharing System. GovExec.com. June 28, 2005.
See also:
Federal Bureau of Investigation. FBI Announces Operational Status of its National Information Sharing System. (Press Release.) June 27, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"When Caterina Fake arrives at the end of a plane flight, she snaps a photo of the baggage carousel with her camera phone to assure her mother, who views the photo on a Web page minutes later, that she has traveled safely.
"And if every picture tells a story, that may be only the start. At Flickr, the popular Web photo-sharing service where Fake, a co-founder, posted the photo, it can be tagged with geographic coordinates for use in a photographic map, or become part of a communal database of images that can be searched for certain colors or characteristics.
"Flickr, acquired this year by Yahoo, is just one example of a rapidly growing array of Web services all seeking to exploit the Internet's power to bring people together."
John Markoff. Web Content by and for the Masses. News.com. June 29, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Microsoft Corp. and Toshiba Corp. said on Monday that they would work together on developing technology for next-generation DVDs that can hold more data and deliver high-definition videos.
"Toshiba and Sony Corp., leading rival camps, have waged a three-year battle to have their standards adopted for new DVDs, which promise much greater capacity for high-definition movies.
"Gates reiterated that Microsoft would keep its neutral stance on the format battle, not supporting either side against the other. But Toshiba and Microsoft said on Monday they had agreed to work together on the development of HD DVD players using Microsoft Windows software, a move that Toshiba hopes will help lower its development costs for the next-generation DVD player."
Reuters. Toshiba, Microsoft to Collaborate on Next-gen DVD. June 27, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Sybase Inc. subsidiary iAnywhere Solutions Inc. in late June will launch a new version of its Afaria mobile device management and security software that offers increased device support, better integration with Microsoft Corp.'s Systems Management Server 2003 and improved patch deployment capabilities.
"The latest version of Afaria is more tightly integrated with SMS 2003, allowing enterprises to manage PCs and mobile devices from a single console. The integration extends SMS 2003 support not only to devices based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system but also to units from Symbian Ltd. and PalmOne Inc. and to Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry devices."
Shelley Solheim. iAnywhere Tool Improves Management, Security of Mobile Devices. eWeek. June 27, 2005.
See also:
Mobile Pipeline Staff. iAnywhere Updates Mobile Device Management Product . Mobile Pipeline. June 27, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The Persian blogland is less than four years old, and so Friday's presidential election is the first of its kind in the post-weblog world.
"Iranian weblogs, one of the largest web communities in the world, owe their significance to the welcome they have received from middle-class Iranians inside and outside the country.
"Thousands of voices not heard via Iranian state-owned media can now express their views through the internet.
Mehdi Jami. Iranian Blogs Take on the Election. BBC News. June 17, 2005.
Update: OpenNet Initiative. Internet Filtering in Iran in 2004-2005. (.pdf) June 21, 2005. (The OpenNet Initiative Claims Iran, along with China, is the biggest censor of online content in the world.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Marketwatch.com founder Larry Kramer, barely two months into his new job as president of CBS Digital, is rapidly implementing major changes to turn CBS News into what sounds like one of the most ambitious experiments in mass media journalism transparency.
"Kramer says CBS News will soon provide coverage of its internal decision-making processes and meetings, including video and interviews wth reporters and producers, along with online access to video interviews cut from television broadcasts.
"CBS will also launch an online edition of its fabled (and recently tarnished) television news magazine, 60 Minutes, and incorporate feedback and video from bloggers."
Andrew Nachison. Larry Kramer: CBS Will be Web Centric and Bypass Cable. Morph. June 22, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A key U.S. Senate panel on Thursday decided not to intervene in a long-simmering dispute over the 'broadcast flag,' a form of copy prevention technology for digital TV broadcasts.
"At a meeting reserved for voting on spending bills, not one member of the Senate Appropriations Committee proposed an amendment authorizing federal regulators to mandate the broadcast flag.
"Consumer groups had predicted that such an amendment would be offered at the 11 a.m. PDT meeting and had asked their supporters to contact senators in opposition to the idea. Their worry: The broadcast flag could be injected into an appropriations bill for the Federal Communications Commission."
Declan McCullagh. Senate Punts on Broadcast Flag Option. News.com. June 23, 2005.
Electronic Frontier Foundation. Flag Day. Deep Links. June 22, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A group of volunteers has begun using collaborative wiki software to expedite the process of perusing thousands of pages of complex documents related to detainees held by the U.S. government at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
"The group, which has coalesced through the influential liberal blog, Daily Kos, has taken it upon itself to vet documents about Gitmo detainees the American Civil Liberties Union received as a result of a 2003 Freedom of Information Act request.
"Earlier this month, Susan Hu, a Daily Kos contributor, commenced the project, in which she and several co-organizers oversee volunteers who have agreed to review a manageable portion of the ACLU documents."
Daniel Terdiman. Wiki Reviews Guantanamo Docs. Wired News. June 22, 2005.
See also:
Daily Kos. SusanHu's FOIA Project UPDATE. June 9, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Answers.com, a Gurunet owned answer-based search engine, and IceRocket.com have partnered to direct IceRocket.com visitors to Answers.com for reference content, and Answers.com will send its 'blog search' traffic to IceRocket.
"Answers.com/GuruNet will receive a share of any revenues generated by its referral traffic to IceRocket."
Loren Baker. Answers.com and IceRocket Partner for Blog Search. Search Engine Journal. June 21, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Blogs are no longer just outlets for cranky people but are increasingly being used by businesses to peddle products, communicate with employees, and project a corporate image to the world, said panelists at the Supernova 2005 technology conference which began Tuesday.
"Web logs, or blogs, began popping up on the Internet several years ago as forums for private citizens to share their personal musings on everything from child rearing to 'Seinfeld.' But a growing number of companies are finding that blogs are also legitimate business tools that can help with interactive marketing or internal communications, the technology experts said during a 'Business Blogging' workshop before the San Francisco conference’s official start.
"What’s key for management is realizing that even though corporate bloggers may have a slightly irreverent tone, they often really do have a constructive agenda, the panelists said."
Red Herring. Blogs Grow as Business Tools. June 21, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Joe Kraus, a serial entrepreneur who helped orchestrate one of Silicon Valley's most audacious business deals in the late 1990s, has joined the board of directors at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
"Kraus joins a prestigious list of seven other EFF board members, including Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig and Dave Farber, former chief technologist at the Federal Communications Commission."
Associated Press. Serial Entrepreneur Joe Kraus Joins EFF. San Jose Mercury News. June 23, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Every day, it seems, there are more blogs, more compilations of blogs and more chatter about blogs, as online debate comes in more flavors.
"You have congressmen, presidential candidates and corporate leaders all doing the blog thing, as well as legions of ordinary folks armed mainly with opinions.
"This, in my view, is a great thing, even though no human being, including me, can keep up with the millions of words being posted each day."
Howard Kurtz. Blog Wars. WashingtonPost.com. June 21, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Microsoft is looking to extend the reach of its Office Communicator 2005 instant-messaging (IM) client via a new version that will be completely Web-based.
"Microsoft is set to kick off on July 15 a first private beta release of what it's currently calling the 'Office Communicator Web Access' client, company officials said on Tuesday.
"The company expects to ship the final version before the end of calendar 2005, officials said."
Mary Jo Foley. Microsoft Readies Web-Based Communicator. Microsoft Watch. June 21, 2005.
See also:
Matt Hines. Microsoft to Debut Web-Based Communicator. News.com. June 21, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"With six seconds remaining, things looked grim for the San Antonio Spurs. Darko Milicic of the Detroit Pistons had given his team a 1-point lead with a 'sensational move' to the hoop, according to Marv Albert's play by play. Now Bruce Bowen of the Spurs was bringing the ball upcourt. Unable to pass, he heaved the ball up from midcourt in a desperate 3-point attempt.
"Swish. The Spurs won, 72-70. And in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, five young friends gathered around a 54-inch television after school went wild, cheering and high-fiving one another.
"This was not Sunday night's Game 5 of the National Basketball Association finals on ABC; that game went to overtime before the Spurs pulled out a 96-95 victory. It was NBA Live: a graphically sumptuous, statistically detailed video game that is part of the new face of mass-market sports."
Seth Schiesel. They Got (Video) Game; N.B.A. Finals Can Wait. News.com. June 21, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Skype Technologies' strategy of welcoming third-party vendors is spawning numerous extensions to its popular Internet telephony service, which is beginning to branch into videoconferencing, data collaboration and mobile wireless calls.
"Santa Cruz Networks on Wednesday launched vSkype Beta, group videoconferencing and collaboration software that lets Skype users meet online with as many as 200 friends or business associates who also use Skype.
"On Tuesday, a Norwegian company, IPDrum, introduced the Mobile Skype Cable, a wire that connects a cell phone to a Skype-equipped PC in order to link Skype to the cellular network for mobile calls."
Stephen Lawson. Third-party Technologies Enhance Skype. PCWorld. June 20, 2005.
See also:
Robert Jacques. Skype Adds Videoconferencing to Arsenal. TechNewsWorld. June 17, 2005.
Sumner Lemon. Call Skype for Free From Your Mobile Phone. PCWorld. June 16, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A bold Los Angeles Times experiment in letting readers rewrite the paper's editorials lasted all of three days. The newspaper suspended its 'Wikitorial' Web feature after some users flooded the site over the weekend with foul language and pornographic photos.
"The paper had posted on its Web site Friday an editorial urging a better-defined plan to withdraw troops from Iraq. Readers were invited to add their thoughts. Dozens did, with some adding hyperlinks and others adding opposing views.
"But the number of 'inappropriate' posts soon began to overwhelm the editors' ability to monitor the site. On Sunday, editors decided to remove the feature."
Gary Gentile. L.A. Times Suspends 'Wikitorials'. LATimes.com. June 20, 2005.
Editor's note See also SNTReport.com's prior story on the L.A. Times launching Wikitorials.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"On the walls of Yahoo's modest Silicon Valley offices there are posters with sketches of oddball inventions that have landed patents, such as a portable bird cage. The point: If a bird cage can get a patent, Yahoo's employees can come up with something big if they put their minds to it.
"The posters are promoting a program called the 'Idea Factory' that is supposed to goose inventive thinking at the 10-year-old Internet-giant-turned-media-powerhouse. Through Idea Factory, staffers are urged to submit notions for improving everything from the company's products to its campus.
"Five miles down the road at offices of archrival Google, inventive thinking is assumed. At Google, engineers are expected to spend one day a week on a project of personal interest."
Stefanie Olsen. Google vs. Yahoo: Clash of Cultures. News.com. June 20, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The federal Data Reference Model working group released the first draft of the DRM Specification today. The working group is now soliciting feedback from government agencies before it submits the DRM to the Office of Management and Budget this fall.
"The release of the DRM draft is an 'important milestone' in the federal government’s efforts to better share information, said OMB chief architect Richard Burke. He spoke at the Data Reference Model Public Forum held today in Washington in conjunction with the federal CIO Council’s quarterly Emerging Technology Components conference."
Joab Jackson. First Draft of Revised Data Reference Model Released. GCN.com. June 13, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A literal battle of the superheroes is shaping up in the highly volatile world of online games.
"Sony Online Entertainment Inc. and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment are set to announce Friday an exclusive long-term licensing agreement that will let gamers share a universe with DC Comics' Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, the Sandman and other action immortals."
Hollywood Reporter. Superman, Batman Set for Online Game. MSNBC News. June 17, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The sharing, use and disposal of public data by government agencies in pursuit of national security is raising questions of oversight and privacy, and a Homeland Security Department advisory committee is working to answer them.
"The committee discussed privacy policies and standards, as well as the need for data exchanges across institutions covering topics as diverse as health care, travel and border control.
"The panel's mission is to determine how federal agencies can improve information sharing without over-reaching into domestic spying and personal abuse."
David J. Wallace. Security Advisory Panel Seeks Solutions to Data Dilemmas. GovExec.com. June 15, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Government computer systems are not prepared for the mounting sophistication of Internet-based hacker attacks, according to a new report (.pdf) from the Government Accountability Office.
"As the risks created by emerging cybersecurity threats such as spam, spyware and "phishing" increase, GAO auditors say that most agencies are unaware of the threat and are failing to comply with the requirements of the 2002 Federal Information Security Management Act.
"Phishing is an attempt to steal someone's identity by posing as a legitimate company and asking for personal information by e-mail. Spam is the unwanted delivery of e-mail, often clogging networks, and spyware is software that monitors computer users' activity without their knowledge."
Daniel Pulliam. GAO Says Agencies Unprepared for Computer Attacks. GovExec.com. June 14, 2005.
See also:
Government Accounting Office. Emerging Cybersecurity Issues Threaten Federal Information Systems. (.pdf) May 2005.
Declan McCullagh. Feds Vulnerable to Lots of Net Threats. News.com. June 14, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Sirius Satellite Radio announced on Tuesday it signed a deal with Sprint to offer music to its cellular phone customers, marking the latest effort to turn the phone into an all-in-one communications and entertainment device.
"Sirius will distribute its music content nationwide over Sprint's cellular network, rather than as a satellite feed, said Jim Collins, a Sirius spokesman. Sprint is currently evaluating which music formats it will carry and what the service will cost its customers. The service is expected to be available later next year.
"Sirius will be available to Sprint customers who have signed up for its $15-a-month PCS Vision, an Internet service that uses Sprint's higher-speed wireless network."
Dawn Kawamoto and Ben Charny. Sprint Gets Sirius About Music. CNET News.com. June 14, 2005.
See also:
Reuters. Sirius to Supply Music to Sprint Phones. June 14, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Less than two years ago, cows grazed on the Jacksonville, Fla., site of Baptist Medical Center South (BMCS). Today, physicians at the brand-new hospital make their rounds toting wireless devices to check lab results, view X-rays, update charts, order prescriptions and send and receive e-mail.
"At bedsides, nurses use wireless devices on wheels, or WOWs, to record progress notes and check doctors' orders. If they administer medicine or change a bandage, the supplies they use are electronically tracked and matched by bar code to individual patient records, enabling more accurate patient billing and automatic inventory replenishment.
"What's conspicuously absent everywhere is paper. And for a busy hospital whose staff has just a few weeks of experience working in a totally electronic environment, the overall atmosphere is strikingly tranquil."
Julia King. The Paperless Hospital -- Really!. ComputerWorld. June 13, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"These days, you would be hard pressed to find many travelers who say the airlines are paying close attention to their customers' concerns. But there are at least 274 Continental frequent fliers who would have to concede that the company's top brass at least listened to their complaints - in person, over dinner and drinks.
"Early in April, Continental Airlines played host at a gathering in Houston for members of FlyerTalk.com, a travel Web site best known for its message boards where travelers discuss, dissect and often complain about pretty much anything related to travel, but mostly airlines and their frequent-flier programs.
"Blogs may be grabbing all the media headlines, but online communities like FlyerTalk are wielding a different kind of influence in the corporate world, providing instant feedback from those critics who marketers have called influencers. Just by logging on, companies can study, learn from and even respond to the cacophony of opinions about what they are doing wrong and what they are doing right without spending a dime on focus groups or market research."
Susan Stellin. On Board the Message Board. The New York Times. June 14, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Intel and Nokia have teamed up to back the development of mobile WiMax technology, and will work together to see that the technology is standardized soon, the companies said this week."
"WiMax, part of the IEEE's (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers') 802.16 standard, is a wide-area wireless networking technology that promises to deliver wireless broadband access over a range significantly greater than that of IEEE 802.11 WLAN (wireless LAN) technology, commonly known as Wi-Fi."
"Cooperation between Nokia and Intel will focus on IEEE 802.16e, a mobile version of the technology that will offer broadband Internet access to users on the move. This standard is currently under development. Intel and Nokia expect the standard to be finalized next year, they say."
Sumner Lemon. Intel, Nokia Team on Mobile WiMax. PC World. June 10, 2005
See also:
Sumner Lemon. Will WiMax Replace DSL?. PC World. September 21, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Michael Kinsley shook up the editorial staff of The Los Angeles Times recently, transferring four of his eleven writers, letting one go, and outsourcing some editorials to freelancers.
"While some editorial pages have been nudged into new directions, Mr. Kinsley, the editorial and opinion page editor, is making the boldest attempt to make them more dynamic, argumentative and interactive with several innovations aimed squarely at online readers, while being less like an unseen voice of authority.
"The changes, announced in yesterday's edition, include allowing editorial writers a once-a-year chance to write a signed piece dissenting from the editorial position of the newspaper.
Alicia C. Shepard. Upheaval on Los Angeles Times Editorial Pages. The New York Times. June 13, 2005.
See also:
Andrés Martinez. To Our Readers. LATimes.com. June 12, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Super-hyped social networking is exploding, with new ways to link up to others being added daily.
"Online social networking sites are offering a multitude of ways -- IM, e-mail, Web-based calling and video -- for members to get in touch with one another.
"It's not enough to allow people to contact one another, however. What many social networking sites are struggling with is, How do you facilitate social interactions without annoying users, big time?"
Olga Kharif. Is Social Networking Broken?. BusinessWeek Online. June 12, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"In Hollywood, where everyone's a freelancer and career networking veers between art and warfare, a new weapon is emerging as champion: instant messaging.
"Movie producers, directors, actors and crew workers bouncing from one job to the next have traditionally relied on agents and Rolodexes for finding their next gigs. But these days, many are discovering it's easier to post their job availability on IM.
"Instead of displaying simple 'away from my computer' messages, Hollywood buddy lists now overflow with come-ons, from 'need work' to 'wrapping up shoot.' Producers hiring for a new production can tell at a glance who's available now, who's not and who might be free in the near future."
Cyrus Farivar. Never IM in This Town Again!. Wired News. June 13, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The new director of library relations at Elsevier, Tony McSean, has admitted that it needs to improve relationships with information professionals, and is calling for a new era of co-operation.
Mark Chillingworth. Elsevier Seeks to Build Bridges. Information World Review. June 10, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Seven years ago, Michael Eisen, an assistant professor of genetics and development at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, proposed a program to link experimental data from his lab to relevant pieces of scientific literature.
"He and his postdoctoral adviser, Pat Brown, fully expected cooperation from Stanford Library, which hosts a large number of scientific journals. 'Instead,' Eisen recalled, 'we were told that the articles we wanted belonged to the publishers and we should basically piss off.'
"It had never occurred to Eisen that publishers could own scientific literature. He was offended by the idea that scientists could be wronged by copyright. This went double for the public, whose tax dollars pay for much of the scientific research undertaken today."
Adam L. Penenberg. Academic Journals Open to Change. Wired News. June 9, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The audio and video search engine unit of America Online has reeled in deals with several content providers, angling for position in the heated race to build the best video search engine.
"The media conglomerate's audio and video search engine Singingfish, which was acquired by Time Warner in 2003, inked deals with 13 new partners, including CBSNews.com, CNN, Hollywood.com, IFILM, Like Television, ManiaTV.com and MarketWatch, allowing it to feature video content feeds for its properties."
Tim Gray. AOL Expands Search Net. InternetNews.com. June 9, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Before America Online, Friendster, forums and blogs, geeks communicated with one another in a clunky and pedestrian way that was the precursor to all subsequent forms of online communication.
"It was called a bulletin board system, or BBS, and was essentially a virtual living room where people hooked up remotely to chat, exchange freeware or play computer games, albeit at a really slow speed.
"Anyone nostalgic for those halcyon days can now thank digital archivist and filmmaker Jason Scott for BBS: The Documentary, a five-and-a-half-hour paean to the era when computers were named Stacy and Lisa, and tech loyalists fought bitter battles over the superiority of Ataris to Amigas."
Kim Zetter. How Humble BBS Begat Wired World. Wired News. June 8, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Want the latest buzz about what's going on in politics, sports, entertainment or other current events? BlogPulse maps trends by mining the hot topics appearing in millions of blogs.
"Like Feedster, Technorati and other blog search engines that we've written about, BlogPulse from Intelliseek is a specialized search engine that helps you locate information in more than 11 million blogs.
"BlogPulse extends this tracking capability by offering the ability to map the popularity of words mentioned in blogs over a period of time."
Chris Sherman. Tracking Trends via the Blogosphere. SearchEngineWatch. June 7, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The Defense Department wants the enterprise portals of the Army, Navy and Air Force linked to a pilot project to test secure, browser-based collaboration tools from WebEx Communications Inc. of San Jose, Calif.
"Michael Krieger, director of information management in the Defense Department’s CIO office, said his office is developing a Global Information Grid-Enterprise Services (GIG-ES) strategy that would provide guidance and instruction to Defense agencies and military services on moving toward an enterprise approach to services.
"Key services, such as collaboration and security, ought to be joint across DOD, Krieger said, although each of the services is also developing its own approach to enterprise hardware, software and services."
Dawn S. Onley. DOD Moves to Get Army, Navy, Air Force Linked to WebEx Project. GCN. June 8, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"In its latest measure to tighten policing of the Internet, China has begun requiring bloggers and owners of personal Web sites to register with the government or be forced offline.
"The new regulations, announced in March, took effect this week, with a warning on the Web site of the Information Ministry that the sites of those who failed to comply would be shut down.
"The measures come against the backdrop of explosive growth of Internet use in China, and the development of Web logs and personal sites as alternative sources of news, as in many other countries."
Howard W. French. China Tightens Restrictions on Bloggers and Web Owners. The New York Times. June 8, 2005.
See also:
BBC News. Chinese Blogs Face Restrictions. June 7, 2005.
Reporters Without Borders. Authorities Declare War on Unregistered Websites and Blogs. June 6, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"On four points, all of the eight most well-known corporate blogging policies agree -- corporate bloggers are personally responsible and they should abide by existing rules, keep secrets and be nice. Those four principles are the core of today's corporate blogging rules.
"I've compared and categorized the corporate blogging policies and guidelines of IBM, Yahoo! (pdf), Hill & Knowlton, Plaxo, Thomas Nelson, Feedster, Groove and Sun.
"Why a comparison? I figured it would be valuable for many other organizations to get an overview of these early policies. Maybe see the patterns. And it is interesting to find what all of them consider important -- and perhaps even more interesting are some of the more unusual pieces of advice/rules."
Fredrik Wacka. Policies Compared: Today's Corporate Blogging Rules. WebProNews.com. June 6, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"To achieve an interoperable system of e-health records, the government said Monday it will spearhead the advancement of a national electronic healthcare system with input from the healthcare community and private industry.
"Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt announced at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society summit in New York the formation of a 17-member advisory panel that will serve as a governing body to guide the health care transformation."
Danielle Belopotosky. Government to Spearhead Creation of e-Healthcare System. GovExec.com. June 6, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Microsoft Corp. on Monday unveiled partnerships with AT&T; Corp. and several other companies aimed at delivering Internet-calling and related features to business.
"Although the Internet-phone market is still small, Microsoft expects big growth in the years ahead as phone companies move to offer the so-called triple play of voice, video and data services.
"Microsoft wants communications carriers such as AT&T; to use the company's software technology to deliver a wide range of services. While Microsoft already offers instant messaging, online worker collaboration and document sharing, it will now add Internet phone calling to the mix.
Jeffry Bartash. Microsoft Eyes Internet-Phone Market. MarketWatch. June 6, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Some FBI officials began raising doubts about the bureau's attempts to create a computerized case management system as early as 2003, two years before the $170 million project was abandoned altogether, according to a confidential report to the House Appropriations Committee.
"By 2004, the report found, the FBI had identified 400 problems with early versions of the troubled software -- but never told the contractor. The bureau also went ahead with a $17 million testing program last December, even though it was clear by then that the software would have to be scrapped, according to the review.
"The 32-page report -- prepared by the House committee's Surveys and Investigations staff and obtained by The Washington Post -- indicates that the FBI passed up numerous chances to cut its losses with the doomed Virtual Case File (VCF), instead forging ahead with a system that ultimately cost taxpayers more than $100 million in wasted expenditures."
Dan Eggen. FBI Pushed Ahead With Troubled Software. WashingtonPost.com. June 6, 2005.
See also:
Larry Greenemeier. Tech Vs. Terrorism. InformationWeek. June 6, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Google unveiled a new program today which would provide Web site owners and marketers more control over when and how their pages are indexed by the search engine's crawlers.
"The Sitemaps program aims to optimize Google's crawling activities, leading to better search results, and to give site owners more input into how their sites are crawled. The process involves a site owner creating and posting an XML file on the site's server describing which pages on the site should be indexed, when those pages were last updated, how often they're updated, and how important each page is relative to others on the site.
"Google created an open-source tool, Sitemap Generator, to assist in the process."
Kevin Newcomb. Google Unveils Sitemaps Tool. ClickZNews. June 3, 2005.
See also:
Danny Sullivan. New "Google Sitemaps" Web Page Feed Program. SearchEngineWatch. June 2, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Blogs aren't just for scaring politicians anymore. Several weblogs are becoming influential in music and entertainment. Savvy entertainment companies have taken advantage of music-focused blogs to promote their music, books and films as part of the ongoing conversation taking place in the 'blogosphere.'
"Now, a group of leading music bloggers have formed the Music Blog Network to help entertainment marketers quickly target the blogs' influential music fans."
Adrants. Bloggers Launch Music Blog Ad Network. June 5, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Virgin Mobile and BT Livetime announced a partnership yesterday to pilot live digital mobile TV. The duo will work with Microsoft, Sky, Argiva and GCap Media to do a four-month trial run over the DAB digital radio network.
"The television service offers Virgin Mobile's customers access to live digital TV 24 hours a day, and features the UK's first mobile Electronic Programme Guide, so customers can see what's on now, what's on later, and even set an alert to remind them when a favorite program is about to start, up to a week ahead.
"Ultimately, Virgin Mobile TV will also let customers record their favorite programs to watch later on their mobile."
Jennifer LeClaire. Virgin Tests Mobile TV. TechNewsWorld. June 3, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Public Web logs that can be modified by anyone with a browser could give citizens more power to affect policy, an Ohio State University expert says.
"Philosophy lecturer Larry Sanger, who spoke June 2 at the FCW Events' Web-Enabled Government Conference, said he believes that government agencies should consider using so-called wiki collaboration tools, which are rapidly growing in popularity.
"Wikis, Sanger said, can help government agencies in at least three ways."
Aliya Sternstein. Wiki Advocate Sees Government Uses. FCW. June 3, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The government is counting on new search technology to sniff out terrorists.
"Google is the No. 1 free tool to snoop on friends or strangers. But government agencies including the Federal Aviation Administration are investing in a new search engine being developed at the University of Buffalo to do some of their more sensitive detective work.
"The technology, released as a prototype in recent weeks, is designed to mine a corpus of documents for associated ideas or connections--connections between two unrelated concepts, for example, that would otherwise go unseen or would take countless hours of investigative work to discover."
Stefanie Olsen. Forging an Anti-Terrorism Search Tool. News.com. June 2, 2005.
See also:
Science Blog. In Terror War, Search Engine Seeks Hidden Vulnerabilities. May 13, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Sony Electronics and GlowPoint made good on their February partnership announcement, bringing the first in a line of IP video communications services to market.
"On Wednesday, the two companies announced the availability of Sony IVE Business service, powered by GlowPoint. (IVE stands for 'Instant Video Everywhere.') The new service puts Sony's strong brand on top of GlowPoint's suite of applications for enabling live video conversations and messaging."
Susan Kuchinskas. Sony, GlowPoint Team for IP Video Service. InternetNews.com. June 2, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Microsoft said Thursday that it will introduce new XML-based file formats for its Excel, PowerPoint and Word applications when the company launches its Office 12 software package next year.
"Company officials said the move to replace Microsoft's traditional binary file formats with open-standards-based XML versions will allow companies using Office 12 to more easily access data across XML's various applications.
"Microsoft pledged that the shift to XML, also known as Extensible Markup Language, will decrease the size of many individual files and make documents created in its Office products more resistant to corruption."
Matt Hines. Microsoft Adding XML Files to Office 12. News.com. June 1, 2005.
See also:
Mary Jo Foley. Office 12 to Get New File Formats . Microsoft Watch. June 1, 2005.
Martin LaMonica. OpenDocument gets Standards Stamp. News.com. May 23, 2005.
Ina Fried. Microsoft Offers Peek at Next Office Suite. News.com. May 18, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The world will get a rare live look into the high-stress world of professional classical music performance beginning Wednesday night, with all the catastrophically missed notes, beads of sweat and spine-tingling performances intact.
From its stage in Fort Worth, Texas, the International Van Cliburn Competition--often dubbed the Olympics of piano playing--will be Webcasting its quadrennial finals through this week. As a bonus for Net-heads, a sharply opinionated blog, written for casual music listeners as well as for professionals, is keeping score."
John Borland. Blogging Classical Music's High-Stress Test. News.com. June 1, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"In its short lifespan, blogging has largely been a freewheeling exercise in online self-expression. Now it is also becoming a corporate job.
"A small but growing number of businesses are hiring people to write blogs, otherwise known as Web logs, or frequently updated online journals.
"Companies are looking for candidates who can write in a conversational style about timely topics that would appeal to customers, clients and potential recruits."
Sarah E. Needleman. Blogging Becomes A Corporate Job; Digital 'Handshake'?. WSJ.com. May 31, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"There is, writes Virginia Postrel in her column on Forbes.com, 'something about blogs [that] makes a lot of respectable journalists hyperventilate. News pros seem terribly threatened by online amateurs.'
"As an illustration she quotes a Los Angeles Times columnist, David Shaw, an über-hack who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1991 for his media criticism. Blogging, Shaw writes, is a 'solipsistic, self-aggrandising, journalist-wannabe genre'. Bloggers are 'practitioners of what is at best pseudo-journalism' and 'many bloggers ... don't seem to worry much about being accurate'.
"Postrel goes on to point out that Shaw omits to provide any links to blogs which illustrate these dismissive claims - in itself an interesting lapse in journalistic standards. But that is par for this course."
John Naughton. Journalists Must Stop Being in Denial: Bloggers are Here to Stay. Guardian Unlimited. May 29, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The Homeland Security Department disagrees with a new Government Accountability Office report (.pdf) that argues that DHS is not doing enough to protect the nation's critical infrastructure from cyberattacks.
"Steven Pecinovsky, director of DHS' liaison office between DHS' inspector general and GAO, said in written comments that he disagrees with the report's 'implication that that the challenges experienced to date have prevented [DHS] from achieving significant results in improving the nation’s cybersecurity posture.'
"Pecinovsky also disputed that DHS had not sufficiently implemented all of GAO's prior recommendations. GAO auditors were unclear about what DHS needs to do and why DHS' performance measures are inadequate, he said."
Michael Arnone. DHS, GAO Spar Over Security. FCW. May 31, 2005.
See also.
U.S. Government Accounting Office. Department of
Homeland Security Faces Challenges in Fulfilling Cybersecurity Responsibilities. (.pdf) May 26, 2005.
Editor's note See also SNTReport.com's prior story on the GAO cybersecurity report.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Some of the leading RSS search and aggregation services have begun banding together to build a next-generation approach for distributing update notifications to the syndicated feeds that are a core part of most Weblogs and a growing number of news and portal sites.
"Called FeedMesh, the approach takes the dozens of ping services that exist today a step further by seeking cooperation among aggregators to share updates among themselves."
Matt Hicks. RSS Updates Moving Beyond Pings. eWeek. May 31, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Web loggers, who pride themselves on freewheeling political activism, might face new federal rules on candidate endorsements, online fundraising and political ads, though bloggers who don't take money from political groups would not be affected.
"Draft rules from the Federal Election Commission, which enforces campaign finance laws, would require that paid political advertisements on the Internet declare who funded the ad, as television spots do.
"Similar disclaimers would be placed on political Web sites, as well as on e-mails sent to people on purchased lists containing more than 500 addresses. The FEC also is considering whether to require Web loggers, called bloggers, to disclose whether they get money from a campaign committee or a candidate and to reveal whether they are being paid to write about certain candidates or solicit contributions on their behalf."
Dawn Withers. FEC Treads Into Sticky Web of Political Blogs. Chicago Tribune. May 31, 2005.
See also:
Peter Overby. Campaign Finance Rules for Political Bloggers?. National Public Radio. May 26, 2005.
Federal Register. Federal Election Commission: Internet Regulations. April 4, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Blogs are a fun forum of self-expression for adolescents. But might blogging be dangerous?
"Earlier this year, 13-year-old Shannon Sullivan of Wood-Ridge, N.J., was socializing in the same way as dozens of her classmates at Our Lady of the Assumption School. She maintained a personalized page on a website that contained her photograph and details about what makes her unique. Friends would surf by and leave fun messages.
"But then her mother found out. And now her site, and those of her friends - once lovingly adorned with everything from sound bites to video clips - are fast disappearing at the insistence of their safety-minded parents."
G. Jeffrey MacDonald. Teens: It's a diary. Adults: It's unsafe.. Christian Science Monitor. May 25, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"New digital marketing book 'Call to Action' has shot up the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Amazon.com bestseller lists without advertising, national distribution or promotional support.
"How? Authors Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg say the dominant driver of its success has been word of mouth, most of it generated online.
"In the lead up to the book's May 9 release, the Eisenberg brothers sent out review copies and asked colleagues to plug it in their Weblogs and online newsletters. They did, extensively. Most notably, marketing author and personality Seth Godin used his popular blog to simultaneously praise the book and trash its cover."
Zachary Rodgers. Weblogs Propel Marketing Book to Bestseller Lists. ClickZNews. May 31, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"In total, five new event-driven blogs have appeared on Latimes.com since it unveiled its new design two weeks ago.
"Yet what garnered the most attention is the much anticipated public reopening of Calendarlive.com, which, since August 2003, had been accessible only to seven-day print subscribers or online readers who paid an extra monthly fee.
"The decision caused a stir in the online journalistic community about the future of paid content and sparked debate about its ability to succeed."
Sarah Colombo. Latimes.com Introduces Blogs, with More Changes on the Way. Online Journalism Review. May 27, 2005.
See also:
Mark Glaser. L.A. Times Hoping Time Is Right in Move to Monetize Niche Content. Oct. 17, 2003.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A critical Government Accountability Office report on the Homeland Security Department’s cybersecurity program has prompted members of the House and Senate Homeland Security committees to call for improved performance.
"DHS’ Information Assurance and Infrastructure Protection Directorate (.pdf) has failed to complete any of its 13 assigned cybersecurity tasks, according to a GAO report (.pdf) released today.
"Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement that 'GAO’s analysis affirms what this committee has been saying for the past two-and-a-half years: The status quo does not serve our cybersecurity needs.'"
Wilson P. Dizard III. Auditors, Solons Say DHS is 0-for-13 on Cybersecurity. GCN. May 26, 2005.
See also:
Chloe Albanesius. GAO: Still Not Enough Work on Cybersecurity. GovExec.com. May 26, 2005.
U.S. Government Accounting Office. Department of
Homeland Security Faces Challenges in Fulfilling Cybersecurity Responsibilities. (.pdf) May 26, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall USA website is dedicated to honoring those who died in the Vietnam War.
"Since it first went on line in 1996 it has evolved into something more. It is now also a place of healing for those affected by one of the most divisive wars in our nation's history."
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Four years ago, corporate culture expert and consultant Rajat Paharia faced 'a sea of cubicles' at one of Honeywell International's offices. The place was faceless and gray and vast, with the muted crackling of a hundred hands typing away. 'There was nowhere for people to get together,' says Paharia. 'There was no sharing space.'
"However, sharing space, at least in the virtual sense, was precisely what Honeywell wanted to create with the help of Paharia and its own Digitization Group. The $24 billion technology and manufacturing leader, which has offices and facilities in 90 countries, was in the midst of building a powerful knowledge network within its prized employee portal, MyHoneywell.
"The idea was that this knowledge network would allow people to share intimate business knowledge with each other, and, in the process, would allow Honeywell to maximize the largely untapped resource of employee knowledge."
Tom Kaneshige. Counter Culture. Line56.com. May 25, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Blogging is a favorite pastime for many tech-savvy writers. But when the subject of the blogs veers into the workplace, employers have been less enthusiastic. Los Alamos Labs is red-faced after an employee revealed security concerns in a blog. And Delta has fired a flight attendant for leggy photos on her web journal."
National Public Radio. Blogging Poses New Workplace Issues. Talk of the Nation. May 24, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Common sense is uncommon in individuals and, at first blush, seems even more so in groups. No one expects crowds to produce useful thought. We fear the tyranny of the majority and mob rule, avoid peer pressure where we can, and immediately see the aptness of Charles Mackay's 19th-century book title Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.
"But the idea of collective intelligence shouldn't seem so far-fetched. After all, democracy is built on the principle that large groups know how to govern themselves. Commodities markets, which set prices on the basis of group knowledge, play a growing role in everyday business decisions.
"Groups, then, can act as parallel-processing decision engines, pooling disparate knowledge to answer even hard questions in areas like public policy. What we lack, however, is a reliable way to build such decision engines."
Michael Fitzgerald. Group Rethink. Technology Review. June 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Open access, open source software, and open standards are three concepts that have been receiving increased attention lately in the library world. Open access is seen by some as a possible solution to the increasing price of serials and as a way for governmental funding agencies to receive a better return on investment.
"Open source software can benefit libraries by lowering initial and ongoing costs, eliminating vendor lock-in, and allowing for greater flexibility.
"Open standards allow for interoperability to exist between diverse library resources and eases data migration between systems."
Edward M. Corrado. The Importance of Open Access, Open Source, and Open Standards for Libraries. Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship. Spring 2005.
Attribution: SNTReport.com first discovered news of these numerous benefits through a posting in Library Link of the Day, edited by John Hubbard.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"In the spring of 1712, the British essayist Joseph Addison rambled from pub to parlor seeking the pulse of his countrymen regarding rumors (false, it turned out) that the king of France, Louis XIV, had died. The St. James coffeehouse, Addison reported in The Spectator, was 'in a Buzz of Politics.'
"In the 18th century, 'buzz' was part of what social theorists called the emerging - and powerful - bourgeois public sphere. In the 21st century, the buzz is in the blogosphere.
"Or at least, that's the popular mythology. As a result of their influence in incidents like the '60 Minutes' episode in which CBS was duped by forged documents related to the president's National Guard service, bloggers have taken on the role of agenda-setters - citizen scribe-warriors wresting power from a mainstream media grown fat and lazy."
Tom Zeller Jr. Are Bloggers Setting the Agenda? It Depends on the Scandal. The New York Times. May 23, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Today, the Federal Trade Commission launched 'Operation Spam Zombies,' a campaign to educate Internet service providers about hijacked 'zombie' computers.
"A zombie is a computer that has had software secretly installed on it which allows a spammer to send large amounts of spam and mask their identity, making it harder for law enforcement officers to find them.
"The FTC, the Department of Commerce and the Department of Homeland Security are collaborating with officials from 25 other countries to educate Internet service providers about measures they can take to stem the flow of spam sent across their networks from zombie computers.
Corey McKenna. FTC Targets Zombies Sending Spam. Government Technology. May 24, 2005.
See also:
Reuters. FTC Asks for Help Against Spam 'Zombies'. CNN.com. May 24, 2005.
Federal Trade Commission. FTC, Partners Launch Campaign Against Spam “Zombies”. (Press Release.) May 24, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The FBI has designed a new computer system to replace a failed $170 million one aimed at helping agents share information but it will not be ready for use until the end of 2006, the FBI director said Tuesday.
"The need for the system was identified after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, when investigators found deficiencies in the sharing and recording of information by U.S. agencies.
"FBI Director Robert Mueller told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee the FBI had designed a new electronic information management system called Sentinel. The bureau expected the first phase to be deployed by the end of next year."
Reuters. FBI to Launch New Computer System by 2006. News.com. May 24, 2005.
See also:
Sarah Lai Stirland. Senators Grill FBI Chief Over Failed Virtual Case File System. GovExec.com. May 24, 2005.
Mark Sherman. Mueller: Cost of FBI Cyber Upgrade Unknown. LATimes.com. May 24, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"First they reinvented the browser, now they're rewriting the rules of advertising -- Firefox's guerrilla marketing has gone straight to video, and it's taking over the web.
"The collaboratively written application has hit more than 50 million downloads, spurred primarily by word-of-mouth advertising.
"Minus the deep pockets of archrival Microsoft, the Mozilla Foundation relies on an army of volunteer marketers to spread the word -- users so loyal they devise their own DIY promotion ideas, from painting sidewalks with the browser's logo to e-mailing sales pitches to the White House."
Robert Andrews. Fans Flock to Firefox Flicks. Wired News. May 24, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Skype has started a blog - and it looks very good indeed. This could be a great example of how a blog can play a key role in building and cementing positive relationships with customers.
"One of the ongoing criticisms of Skype has been the way in which the company really hasn't engaged well with customers who have issues (real or perceived, but what's the difference from the customer's viewpoint?) of one type or another in using the service. Many people give Skype high marks for the technology, and low marks for customer relations and customer satisfaction (in early March, I asked whether Skype is approaching a crossroads in this regard)."
Nevon Hobson. Skype Blogs To Create Community. WebProNews.com. May 21, 2005.
See also:
NevOn. Skype Approaches a Crossroads. March 1, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Four journalists who brought news of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy into U.S. living rooms in 1963 have found a new level of fame by using the Internet to market their book about the experience.
"They are among a growing group of people exploring the potential of blogs, or Web logs, as a marketing tool and advertising venue."
Lisa Baertlein. Marketers Big and Small Taking a Shine to Blogs. Reuters. May 22, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Cranking out a column after a presidential debate or publishing a prize-worthy photo of the next catastrophe just got a whole lot easier -- no matter where or who you are.
"Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and others have started to offer simple-to-use tools that let anybody with a digital camera or personal computer create blogs and produce homemade news.
"When twinned with new technology like camera phones and handheld computers, it's now possible to publish pictures or jot notes from anywhere: the street, a beach, a restaurant. Seconds later the information is posted to a Website for the world to read -- and suddenly you've got a mobile web blog, or moblog."
Paul Thomasch. PluggedIn: Homemade News Hits the Road with "Moblogs". Reuters. May 20, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"If there's any doubt that XML-based syndication, commonly called RSS, is impacting more than the legion of Webloggers who have helped to popularize it, look no further than the New York Times.
"The online companion to the Gray Lady has watched the popularity of its RSS feeds grow from a mere half-million page views to 7 million since late 2003, said Martin Nisenholtz, senior vice president of digital operations at The New York Times Co., during a keynote at the Syndicate Conference here last week.
"'We have deliberately and very methodically gone out and gotten RSS out there,' Nisenholtz said. 'It's the fastest growing distribution channel we have.'"
Matt Hicks. RSS Sets Its Sights on the Enterprise. eWeek. May 22, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Blogdigger, a blog search engine being developed by Greg Gershman, has launched a new service called Blogdigger Local (beta) that allows you to search for blog posts by geographic location.
"You can search Blogdigger Local by entering a city/state or Zip Code along with your search terms. This initial beta release only supports about 50,000 US cities and zip codes but expect support for more locations soon."
Gary Price. Blogdigger Goes Local. SearchEngineWatch. May 19, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Without Google, Yahoo, and their brethren, using the Web would be like wandering through a library where a prankster has restacked the books at random. Still, sorting through thousands or millions of pages spurted out by a search engine can be nearly as overwhelming.
"Imagine instead being able to call on the group judgment of other users, people who are constantly skimming the latest Web content and arranging the best stuff into neatly labeled piles.
"It's called tagging, and it's going on at a handful of free websites--Delicious, Flickr, Furl, and Rojo, among others--where members are voluntarily classifying and categorizing thousands of pieces of content each day."
Wade Roush. Tagging Is It. Technology Review. June 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"When you need a quick fact at the office, you can always lift your head above 'the cubes' and broadcast your request to your fellow workers -- or you can reach for your cell phone and send a message to Cellphedia.
"Inspired by Wikipedia, the all-volunteer, online community encyclopedia, and Dodgeball, a cell phone-based social networking service, Cellphedia allows its members to broadcast questions to its community and receive answers, all through a mobile phone.
John P. Mello Jr. Cellphedia Melds Facts with Mobile Smart Mobs. E-Commerce Times. May 19, 2005.
See also:
Rachel Metz. Put Some Wisdom in Your Pocket. Wired News. May 11, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"RSS aggregator NewsGator Technologies Inc. has acquired the company behind FeedDemon, one of the most popular desktop news readers for Windows.
"Denver-based NewsGator plans to announce its purchase of Bradbury Software LLC on Tuesday during the opening day of the Syndicate Conference here.
"The acquisition adds a desktop client to NewsGator's growing suite of software and services for subscribing to and reading RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds."
Matt Hicks. NewsGator Buys Creator of FeedDemon RSS Reader. eWeek. May 17, 2005.
See also:
Silicon Valley Watcher. A Chat with FeedDemon Developer Nick Bradbury About His Company's Acquisition by NewsGator. May 17, 2005.
Nick Bradbury. NewsGator Acquires FeedDemon, TopStyle...and Me!. May 17, 2005.
Neville Hobson. FeedDemon Acquisition Gives NewsGator A Complete RSS Offering. WebProNews.com. May 17, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Around 190 hours of TV shows and 310 hours of radio programmes are to be made available for legal downloading to selected individuals across the UK.
"It marks the second stage in the development of the BBC's interactive Media Player (iMP).
"The iMP will allow viewers to catch up with programmes up to seven days after they are broadcast, using the internet to download shows to home computers."
BBC News. BBC Moves Ahead With TV Downloads. May 16, 2005.
See also:
Jason Deans. BBC to Trial TV Content Online. Guardian Unlimited. May 16, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The Amber Alert system is going mobile.
"Major wireless phone companies said Tuesday that they will begin relaying the bulletins about abducted children on phones with text-messaging capabilities.
"That means the alerts -- which already reach hundreds of thousands of motorists by way of electronic highway signs -- can potentially reach millions of additional sets of eyes out of the estimated 182 million wireless subscribers nationwide."
Sam Diaz. Amber Alerts Coming to Cell Phones. San Jose Mercury News. May 18, 2005.
See also:
Tracy Ford. Wireless carriers Partner on Amber Alert Text Messages. RCRNews.com. May 17, 2005.
CITA. Wireless Industry and The National Center For Missing & Exploited Children Team Up for Child Safety. (Press Release.) May 17, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The news last Friday that IBM is introducing a large-scale corporate blogging initiative has attracted plenty of attention, both in the blogosphere and by mainstream media.
"Today, IBM published on its employee intranet its draft guidelines for corporate blogging.
"James Snell, a member of IBM's Software Standards Strategy Group, has posted those guidelines on his public blog as well as a link to a PDF you can download."
Neville Hobson. IBM Publishes Guidelines For Employee Bloggers. WebProNews. May 16, 2005.
See also:
Roy Mark. IBM Urges Employees to Blog With Care. InternetNews.com. May 16, 2005.
James Snell. Blogging@IBM. IBM. May 16, 2005.
IBM. IBM Blogging Policy and Guidelines. May 16, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A messaging company behind software for delivering real-time event information is turning its attention to the enterprise management of RSS and syndication feeds.
"KnowNow Inc. on Monday announced server software that aggregates RSS feeds and builds subscription and access controls into the delivery of feeds. The Palo Alto, Calif., company's introduction comes a day ahead of the opening of the Syndicate Conference, which will focus on enterprise use of RSS.
"Called the KnowNow 3 Enterprise Syndication Solution, the offering includes a server-based engine that monitors and routes RSS feeds and a Web browser-based aggregator called SpeedReader for reading the XML-based feeds."
Matt Hicks. KnowNow Offers Enterprise RSS. eWeek. May 16, 2005.
Editor's note See also SNTReport.com's prior story on RSS for enterprises.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A research report on the business of blogging cautioned companies Friday to be wary of investing resources and time in producing Web logs.
"EMarketer Inc. said just 4% of major U.S. corporations have blogs available to the public for purposes such as corporate marketing, communications or advertising. 'Thus far, the financial and economic impact of blogging is minimal,' said Ezra Palmer, the research firm's editorial director."
Frank Barnako. Report Says Blog Boom has Stalled. MarketWatch. May 13, 2005.
See also:
eMarketer. The Business of Blogging. May 12, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"AOL Instant Messenger has become an institution for nearly 30 million Americans. But can it ever become a big contributor to the company's bottom line?
"That's very much on the mind of the folks who manage Time Warner subsidiary America Online. They want that loyalty to pay off as the Internet service provider seeks to offset declining subscriber rates for its core dial-up service and gain ground on Yahoo, Microsoft and Google.
"So on Thursday, AOL activated a free Web-based e-mail account for every customer with an AIM screen name."
Stephanie Olsen. AOL's Remixed Messenger. News.com. May 12, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Microsoft and software partner Interwoven have agreed to join forces on product integration, research and development, and sales and marketing.
"The partnership, announced on Thursday, is aimed at law firms and other professional-services companies that have complex document and records management requirements."
Alorie Gilbert. Microsoft Teams up on Content Management. News.com. May 12, 2005.
See also:
Jim Wagner. Interwoven in Microsoft's Gold Circle. InternetNews.com. May 12, 2005.
Interwoven. Interwoven Announces High Velocity ECM Solutions on the Microsoft Platform. (Press Release.) May 12, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Manufacturing powerhouse Ingersoll-Rand learned the hard way how bloggers can lay waste to a product.
"Its trouble began after an individual posted instructions on a Web site showing how the company's sleek but seemingly indestructible Kryptonite bicycle lock could be undone with a Bic pen. The story gradually spread over the Internet as bloggers wrote about the fatal flaw and provided links to the Web site. Within five days, the bloggers' details were picked up by mainstream media outlets such as The New York Times.
"Ingersoll-Rand could have limited the damage to its brand if it had used a service to track its reputation on the Web, says David Sifry, chief executive officer of Technorati, a blog tracking and search company based in San Francisco. Instead, the manufacturer was clueless for days that its Kryptonite locks were under digital assault and had to offer a lock exchange program that it estimated at the time would cost it $10 million."
Joshua Jaffe. Blogs and Social Networks and Wikis, Oh My!. News.com. May 12, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Google has acquired social-networking service Dodgeball, as it continues its expansion beyond search.
"Dodgeball posted a notice on its site, saying it was acquired on Wednesday. The note did not reveal financial details but did say that Dodgeball's two co-founders are 'Google superfans.'"
Margaret Kane. Google Buys Social-Networking Service. News.com. May 12, 2005.
See also:
Stacy Cowley. Google Learns How to Play Dodgeball. PCWorld. May 12, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"With the software acquisition frenzy showing no signs of slowing, IBM has bought a small, but technologically significant company and strengthened its hold on the $7 billion middleware market.
"Its purchase on Tuesday of Gluecode Software for an estimated $100 million is a ringing endorsement of the open-source software movement. And when coupled with IBM's recently completed purchase of Ascential Software, it suggests yet another sign that the largest players with the broadest offerings are calling the shots in the software industry."
Bill Snyder. Size Matters in Software Merger Derby. TheStreet.com. May 11, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"I'm the type who likes to stay informed about everything and, until recently, have been holding my own with three or four newspapers, a dozen magazines, a few dozen Web sites and an obsession with hitting the 'reload' button on my Google news page every few seconds.
"But that was before blogs, or individual Web logs, picked up popularity.
"Now everyone is a publisher. There are more than 9 million blogs, and another 40,000 or 50,000 are being created every day, according to Technorati.com, a monitoring firm. 'There are enough blogs to fill up every single second of the day and not be done,' says the company's president, Dave Sifry."
Linda Stern. Financial Blogs Multiply. Reuters. May 11, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The traffic jam ended hours ago, the parking lot is nearly empty and fluorescent lights are dimmed at PortalPlayer Inc., where the nightly brainstorming session is about to begin.
"Instead of gathering the few remaining souls from their cubicles, three managers move into a conference room to dial India, where engineers 12 1/2 time zones ahead are just arriving in Hyderabad.
"As colleagues on opposite sides of the globe discuss circuit board configurations and debugging strategies for a project code-named 'Doppelganger,' it's just the start of another endless day for the company. Within twelve hours, Indian workers will end their day with calls and e-mails to California, where managers in the Santa Clara headquarters will just be waking up."
Rachel Konrad. For Some Techies, an Interminable Workday. Associated Press. May 10, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"I know what Shakespeare said about a rose by any other name, but accuracy is my profession's watchword. In that spirit, I propose changing the name of a technology that we Web news types use to persuade people to visit our sites.
"The technology is called RSS, which stands for 'Really Simple Syndication.' It's like installing a wire service on your computer -- or cell phone or handheld device. RSS lets you choose the "feeds" that you want to receive and posts updates as they happen. You install 'readers' so you can, well, read them. It's a great way to stay current not just on the news, but any Web site that runs a feed."
Robert MacMillan. Feed Simple. WashingtonPost.com. May 11, 2005.
See also:
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols. Refining Paperless News. WashingtonPost.com. March 14, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The BBC has opened up its content more so that people can use news stories and headlines on their own sites via RSS.
"Revised licence terms mean other sites can integrate RSS feeds from the BBC without offline contract negotiations, as was previously the case."
BBC News. BBC Eases Rules on News Feed Use. May 11, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"If you've heard lately (via Steve Ballmer at Microsoft) that you put your company at greater risk of being sued because you are using open source software (OSS), don't believe it.
"Actually, there is, depending who you talk to, either an equal or somewhat reduced risk of liability from OSS than proprietary software. This is because OSS code is peer-reviewed by a group of proud developers who often have the ability to recognize other developers' handiwork."
Allen Bernard. Can You Really Get Sued for Using Open Source?. CIO Update. May 6, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"For scholars interested in international commerce over the past 50 years, April 19 was a big day. On that day, the GATT Digital Library — a collection of 30,000 public documents and 200 reports related to the workings of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT — was uploaded online at http://gatt.stanford.edu. The library is the culmination of a six-year project to digitize and archive the GATT archives.
"The GATT executive-congressional agreement goes back to 1947, when several countries decided to reduce tariffs and establish international trade rules. After several rounds of modifications, the GATT was succeeded by the World Trade Organization, or the WTO, in 1993."
Rose Jenkins. Stanford, WTO Partnership Places Trade Documents Online. Stanford Daily. May 10, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"In order to build readers' confidence, an internal committee at The New York Times has recommended taking a variety of steps, including having senior editors write more regularly about the workings of the paper, tracking errors in a systematic way and responding more assertively to the paper's critics.
"The committee also recommended that the paper 'increase our coverage of religion in America' and 'cover the country in a fuller way,' with more reporting from rural areas and of a broader array of cultural and lifestyle issues.
"The committee, which was charged last fall by Bill Keller, the executive editor, with examining how the paper could increase readers' trust, said there was 'an immense amount that we can do to improve our journalism.'"
Katharine Q. Seelye. Times Panel Proposes Steps to Build Credibility. The New York Times. May 9, 2005.
See also:
The New York Times. From the Report. May 9, 2005.
The Credibility Group. Preserving Our Readers’ Trust. (.pdf) May 2, 2005.
Bill Keller. Times Editor's Response to Credibility Report. The New York Times. May 9, 2005.
Related:
Daniel Okrent. Briefers and Leakers and the Newspapers Who Enable Them. The New York Times. May 8, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"It was inevitable. At some point one of us -- and by that I mean someone with a clue about technology -- would run for political office.
"I don't count Al Gore or Howard Dean, whose campaign raised vast sums when it discovered e-mail and e-commerce. I mean someone like Andrew Rasiej, one of four Democratic candidates vying for New York City's Office of Public Advocate, which advises the mayor on community relations and investigates complaints against city agencies.
"Rasiej's proposals rely heavily on developing universal Wi-Fi and wiring the subways for cell phones. He looks to the model of open source as a way for the citizenry to identify, report and fix problems -- for example, he says it's a fine idea if New Yorkers could use cell-phone cameras to report potholes to the proper authorities."
Adam L. Penenberg. The Techno Candidate. Wired News. May 5, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Don't ask Nick Denton, publisher of Gawker Media and its growing list of popular Web logs, about his empire. 'People come up to me as if it's witty and say, 'How is the empire going?' ' Mr. Denton said, 'which is pretty pathetic.'
"Don't ask him about his business plan, either. He says he never had one. The only reason he formed the company, he said, was to make his network of blogs - which includes Gawker, the flagship chronicle of Manhattan news and gossip; Fleshbot, the thinking person's diary of smut; and about 10 other titles - more attractive to advertisers.
"It doesn't help with readers,' he said. 'It's actually a disadvantage, because it looks corporate.'"
Tom Zeller Jr. A Blog Revolution? Get a Grip. The New York Times. May 8, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"There was a time when David Sze, a venture capitalist at Greylock Partners, could be counted among those skeptical of the millions of dollars being poured into Internet companies that were creating online communities to foster business and social contacts.
"'Basically, it reminded us a lot of what we saw in the late 1990's,' Mr. Sze said of the first rush of investment in social networking ventures in 2003. 'It was, 'Let's hope some users come and if they do, we'll figure out how to turn that into a business.' We didn't see a real business model there.'
"Even now, a year and a half later, the question persists of how these ventures can make money - and justify the millions already invested."
Gary Rivlin. Skeptics Take Another Look at Social Sites. The New York Times. May 9, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Internet blog Engadget created a stir among digital game lovers when it wrote that Microsoft Corp will give away thousands of its new Xbox video game consoles in a promotion with soda maker PepsiCo.
"While neither company would respond to the report that first appeared in mid-April, dozens of gadget and video game blogs have picked up the item, speculating on everything from Microsoft's marketing strategy to the number of sodas one would need to slurp to win in the bottle-cap contest.
"The buzz about a product months before its official launch is but one example of why the world's top advertisers and media moguls are plotting strategy for the quick-response, point-of-view world of blogs. But they may already be behind an emerging network of blogs that are building a business model from the grass roots up, industry experts said."
Michele Gershberg. PluggedIn: Big Media Companies Weigh Blog Strategies. Reuters. May 6, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A public military report on an investigation into the shooting death of an Italian security agent includes blocks of classified data that can be deciphered as easily as copying and pasting text.
"Multinational Forces-Iraq issued the report in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format on April 30 as an unclassified document, with blocks of classified redacted information obscured from public view. But copying and pasting the classified sections into Microsoft Notepad reveals the blocked text."
Dawn S. Onley and Patience Wait. Acrobat User Gaffe Exposes Classified Defense Information. Washington Technology. May 3, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Web giant Yahoo is developing a search engine for finding downloadable songs and music data from across the Internet, CNET News.com has learned.
"The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company plans to introduce the music search engine within the next couple of months, according to a source familiar with the service.
"The specialty engine will let people search on an artist's name, for example, and retrieve all the available songs from other music services, as well as album reviews and band information from Yahoo Music."
Stefanie Olsen. Yahoo Developing an Audio Search Engine. News.com. May 5, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Revving its Longhorn marketing engine, Microsoft Corp. is forming a team of bloggers who will get early access to prereleases of the operating system and will be asked to review the Windows XP successor.
"Microsoft Longhorn evangelist and blogger Robert Scoble on Sunday started soliciting nominations for 'Team 99' on Microsoft's Channel 9 Web site for developers."
Joris Evers. Microsoft Recruits Bloggers to Preview Longhorn. ComputerWorld. May 4, 2005.
See also:
Scobleizer. Team 99 -- Longhorn Superuser Blogger Group -- reforms. May 1, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Users of AOL's popular instant messaging services can now turn their chats into Weblogs.
"America Online Inc. on Thursday opened its AOL Journals blog-publishing service to members of AOL Instant Messenger members, letting them create and manage blogs using their AIM screen names.
"By tying AOL Journals to AIM, AOL is expanding the blogging service to its 36 million active IM users. AOL Journals previously was only available to AOL subscribers."
Matt Hicks. AOL Opens Blog Service to IM Users. eWeek. May 5, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Google, the BBC and a blog entitled Boing Boing are among the websites honoured at this year's online Oscars.
"The winners of the 9th annual Webby Awards have been chosen by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences and will be recognised at a special ceremony in New York on June 6.
"The awards cover more than 60 categories - from popular favorites like community, fashion, film, and politics to new categories making their debut this year, such as blog, beauty, real estate, retail, and social networking."
Rachel Sharp. Online Oscars Revealed. 999 Today. May 4, 2005.
See also:
Stefan Lovgren. Webby Awards Founder on Internet "Oscars," Web's Future. National Geographic News. May 4, 2005.
BBC News. BBC Triumphs in Online Oscars. May 3, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Visitors to the Web sites of state and federal governments can now seamlessly access the federal online clearinghouse for benefits information, the Labor Department announced last week.
"The main federal benefits Web site, www.GovBenefits.gov, started a new program called Customized Connections. The program allows visitors to other sites to access the benefits site through portals that resemble the sites they are currently visiting, said Peggy Abrahamson, a Labor spokeswoman."
Michael Arnone. GovBenefits.gov Gets Customized. FCW. May 3, 2005.
See also:
Chloe Albanesius. Labor Department Unveils Updated Benefits Web Tools. April 29, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"'You're It!,' a new blog on tagging, began publishing April 26, 2005. The masthead is a "who's who" of the blogosphere, including Christian Crumlish, Clay Shirky, Jon Lebkowsky, and David Weinberger.
About the tagging phenomenon, Lebkowsky says:
"The real zinger for me was realizing that tagging or folksonomy is yet another manifestation of our evolution from hierarchical systems to more later, emergent, and empowering network/grassroots approaches. Here we’re talking about a populist approach to taxonomy: rather than fit our thinking into authoritative closed classification schemes, we can create our own through tagging, and in social tagging environments we can negotiate new, more nuanced ways to map meaning and relationship through shared, emergent classification systems."
Jon Lebkowsky. Introduction: Jon Lebkowsky. You're It. May 3, 2005.
Related:
Tony Hammond, et al. Social Bookmarking Tools (I): A General Review. D-Lib Magazine. April 2005.
Joshua Porter. Folksonomies: A User-Driven Approach to Organizing Content. User Interface Engineering. April 26, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"America Online has overhauled its instant messaging application to combine voice and text conversations with games and file- and photo-sharing.
Last week, the Internet company began testing an early-stage IM application, called Triton, which eventually will be the foundation of AOL Instant Messenger, or AIM. Among its innovations, Triton features a unified chat box with 'tabs' for each new conversation and easy access to address book information.
Stefanie Olsen. AOL Tests Triton IM Software. News.com. May 3, 2004.
See also:
Juan Carlos Perez. AOL Gives AIM an Extreme Makeover. PCWorld. April 29, 2005.
David Worthington and Nate Mook. AOL Testing Next Generation AIM Client. BetaNews. April 26, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Macromedia updated its Web conferencing application with new voice over IP capabilities.
"As part of Breeze 5's new VoIP plan, the platform now includes a telephone gateway that companies can link to their existing telephony bridges.
"In addition to support for VoIP, Breeze 5 also includes the ability to do on-demand video and real-time, multipoint video conferencing."
Michael Singer. Macromedia Taps VoIP For Breeze. InternetNews.com. May 2, 2005.
See also:
Matt Hicks. Macromedia Refreshes Breeze Meeting Software. eWeek. May 2, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Amazon.com Inc. is all set to tap the largely undeveloped online wine market through a new partnership with San Francisco Internet retailer Wine.com, which has crafted a distribution system to comply with legal codes in states such as Washington.
"Unlike its joint ventures with Toysrus.com, Office Depot and Target, Amazon will simply direct traffic to Wine.com's Web site, which has been constructed to conform its product offerings to the legal requirements of the state to which they will be shipped."
Kristen Millares Bolt. Amazon Puts Wine on Menu. SeattlePI.com. May 4, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"So far, the world of online video is full of walls. In order to see video, you need a variety of media players, you might have to register or pay for a service, and of course you need bandwidth. But a raft of startups and search engines are here to help bring down those walls, allow anyone to upload their amateur video and other media, and make it more searchable than ever before.
"Of the grassroots video hubs, the veteran site would be Ourmedia.org.
Mark Glaser. Search Engines, Startup Media Sites Dream of Becoming Video Hubs. Online Journalism Review. April 26, 2005.
Coming Soon: Search & Text Mining Report™ Covering the Intersection of Search, Business, Multimedia, and Information Science. The newest Seso Group™ Venture.
"The idea is enticing. Empowered departments of a big enterprise, all publishing content directly to their customers through standard templates. The site continues to grow, but in a controlled way. And these business units have complete control of what is and isn’t online.
"Sounds good, but just try putting it into practice. In a report published last year, Jupiter Research uncovered some startling findings. “Of just under 100 companies … only 27 percent of companies surveyed planned to continue using their Web content management systems as they do now.
"So why do these CMS projects almost always fail?"
Jeffrey Veen. Why Content Management Fails. Adaptive Path. April 1, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Fast, effective communication with employees, partners, customers and other critical contacts — wherever and whenever business requirements dictate — is becoming mandatory. While e-mail helps, it is not always the best choice to resolve an immediate question or for group collaboration.
"The desire to increase productivity, ease collaboration, and reduce costs is forcing many organizations of all sizes to look at newer communication tools. The challenge is to introduce new tools without increasing the complexity of our interactions while also maintaining a secure communications environment."
Jeff Raikes. Microsoft's Jeff Raikes On Real-Time Collaboration. Messaging Pipeline. April 26, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Imagine we’re starting work on the user registration functionality of a web site. After conducting a thorough set of user tests, we discover that half of all users who attempt to register can’t successfully complete the process. Those who do register find the process very frustrating. Fixing the registration process to eliminate any frustration would be important, right? Not necessarily.
"How does an improved registration process help the business? How does increasing the number of registrations help the bottom line, either immediately or in the long term? If we can’t answer these questions, why should our organization invest any resources to fix it?"
Jared M. Spool. Identifying the Business Value of What We Do. User Interface Engineering. April 15, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology in our New Afternoon Edition. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Many of the design teams we talk to face the same major issue: how to organize the information on their sites. From creating navigation schemes to developing site hierarchies to refining checkout sequences, it’s highly important for design teams to organize information effectively for their users.
"One of the most common strategies for organizing content is to place it in a taxonomy. Although taxonomies are common, it can be difficult for design teams to implement them.
"Folksonomies, a new user-driven approach to organizing information, may help alleviate some of the challenges of taxonomies. Sites with folksonomies include two basic capabilities: they let users add “tags” to information and they create navigational links out of those tags to help users find and organize that information later."
Joshua Porter. Folksonomies: A User-Driven Approach to Organizing Content. User Interface Engineering. April 26, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology in our New Afternoon Edition. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Consider this somewhat strange development: search engines like Google and Yahoo have become so proficient at attracting advertising that even competitors, like newspapers and yellow pages publishers, are now selling ads on their behalf.
"Businesses like yellow pages publishers, which exist solely to serve the local advertiser that Google and Yahoo covet, may appear to be cutting their own throats by passing those customers onto the search engines. But the publishers argue that they are taking advantage of the chance to make additional money, while also studying the search engines closely enough to determine a long-term strategy to compete with them."
Bob Tedeschi. Ad Agents for the Search Engines. The New York Times. May 2, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Here's how we tend to organize our digital photos: We stick them into a folder on our computer and label it 'Hawaii trip,' or whatever.
"Here's a new way: Forget folders or albums. Just 'tag' the photos based on what's actually in each frame. Now, extrapolate this concept to the ideas, images, videos -- and people -- you meet or wish to find online. If they're properly tagged, they're far easier to find.
"That's 'tagging,' and it's currently all the rage among the digerati."
Anick Jesdanun. 'Tags' Ease Sifting of Digital Data. BusinessWeek Online. May 1, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Six Apart, the leader in weblogging software and services, and Nokia today announced that the users of Six Apart's LiveJournal online community can easily post text to their diaries using Nokia Lifeblog, an application solution that effortlessly keeps an organized multimedia diary of items collected with your mobile phone.
"LiveJournal users with paid accounts can also enhance their diaries by uploading photos with text to their LiveJournal entries."
Mobiledia. Six Apart LiveJournal Users Can Post With Nokia Lifeblog. April 26, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Call it Total Information Awareness, homeland-style.
"Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff this week floated an idea to start a nonprofit group that would collect information on private citizens, flag suspicious activity, and send names of suspicious people to his department."
Siobhan Gorman. DHS Chief Floats Idea for Collecting Private Citizens' Information. GovExec. April 29, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"France's decision to create an online repository of European literature got critical backing from five other European nations this week when the heads of Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Spain joined French President Jacques Chirac in asking for support from the European Union.
"European media reported that a letter signed by the leaders asks EU President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to coordinate the effort and, more importantly, cut a check to fund it. The letter comes after the national libraries of 19 European nations agreed to support the plan as well."
Robert MacMillan. Google Unites Europe. WashingtonPost.com. April 29, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The first time Marc Fleury tried to raise money for his technology start-up company, in mid-2000, a venture capitalist told him that he didn't have merely a bad business plan but a terrible one.
"Not only was Fleury planning to compete against the likes of IBM, but his product was open-source software, which he would give away.
"Four years later, he tried again. His business was still based on the free distribution of code, yet now there was a dogfight among venture capitalists competing to finance his company, called JBoss."
Gary Rivlin. Open Wallets for Open-Source Software. News.com. April 27, 2005.
See also:
Martin LaMonica. JBoss Tries to Bulk Up Its Rolodex of Partners. News.com. Feb. 28, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Go ahead and bellyache about blogs. But you cannot afford to close your eyes to them, because they're simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself. And they're going to shake up just about every business -- including yours.
"It doesn't matter whether you're shipping paper clips, pork bellies, or videos of Britney in a bikini, blogs are a phenomenon that you cannot ignore, postpone, or delegate. Given the changes barreling down upon us, blogs are not a business elective. They're a prerequisite."
Stephen Baker and Heather Green. Blogs Will Change Your Business. BusinessWeek Online. May 2, 2005.
Commentary by K. Matthew Dames, Executive Editor, SNTReport.com:
What is significant about this package is not the information it imparts -- which, by and large, is several months' behind the curve, even from a mainstream journalistic standpoint -- but the key message it fails to deliver.
For all the hurrah about blogging in the corporation, most of the efforts amount to little more than online advertising and public relations presented in a new wrapper. One of the main reasons blogging has exploded in popularity is because many of its best practitioners are candid, open, even improvisational. Candor, openness, and improvisation, of course, are categorically at odds with the environment that most corporations want to foster. Corporations generally want to control news, have their representatives stay "on message," and generally eschew all but the most scripted improvisation. (For an interesting take on how improvisation can be scripted in the political world, take a look at the 1997 film Wag the Dog.)
In other words, the best that the blogging ethic has to offer is more like hardcore, grassroots journalism than polished, starched corporate missives from the boardroom. Until businesses decide to dispense with their usual penchant for message massage and manipulation, their attempts at communication will seem as exciting as stale seltzer. It is my guess that most of the executives reading the BW package would like to adopt a policy of open information exchange as much as they would like to see the value of their shares drop by half within the next week.
See also:
Stephen Baker and Heather Green. Six Tips for Corporate Bloggers. BusinessWeek Online. May 2, 2005.
No author. Blogging: A Primer. BusinessWeek Online. May 2, 2005.
No author. Stonyfield Farm's Blog Culture. BusinessWeek Online. May 2, 2005.
No author. New York's Real Estate Know-It-All. BusinessWeek Online. May 2, 2005.
Stephen Baker. Don't Fear the Blog and the Fury. BusinessWeek Online. Feb. 17, 2005.
Heather Green. Let a Million Videos Bloom Online. BusinessWeek Online. Dec. 29, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology in our New Afternoon Edition. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Mike Homer sees the future of public broadcasting, and it's on the Internet.
"Or rather, it is the Internet.
"Homer and erstwhile Netscape wunderkind Marc Andreessen are using file-sharing technology to distribute audio and video files for free online. Unlike Kazaa and other popular 'peer-to-peer' programs, however, Open Media Network allows only authorized sharing and weeds out bootlegged goods."
Jon Healey. Network Shares Audio and Video, Screens Out Bootlegs. LATimes.com. April 26, 2005.
See also:
Benny Evangelista. Startup to Offer Digital TV, Radio Shows Online for Free. San Francisco Chronicle. April 26, 2005.
John Borland. Netscape Pioneers Launch Free Content Network. News.com. April 25, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Suddenly, Weblogs are Everywhere.
"Millions of the easy-to-publish online journals have been created in the past three years, and their impact has been rapid and widespread. Bloggers helped drive Dan Rather from the anchor desk at CBS, and they played a prominent role in the 2004 elections. Corporate culture is no exception to this trend, but much of the action is taking place beneath the radar of IT managers.
"So far, most of the attention paid to business blogging has focused on a handful of high-profile sites intended for public consumption."
Edward Cone. Rise of the Blog. CIO Insight. April 5, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Yahoo has beefed up its personal search with a number of new features and tools, expanding the capabilities of the My Yahoo personal search features that the company launched last October.
"'We feel that this is another step for us for personal search, and will really resonate with our users,' said Tim Mayer, director of product management for Yahoo Search.
"Most notably, the new My Web service now allows you to save a cached copy of a page in addition to saving just a link to the page."
Chris Sherman. Yahoo Launches My Web Personal Search. SearchEngineWatch. April 27, 2005.
See also:
Neil Rubenking. Yahoo My Web (beta). PCMag.com. April 26, 2005.
Matt Hicks. Yahoo Launches Personalized Web Search. eWeek. April 26, 2005.
Chris Sherman. Yahoo Introduces Personal Search. SearchEngineWatch. Oct. 5, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"This could be the year RSS comes of age. While it's been around for a number of years since original development by Netscape, RSS is not yet widely adopted.
"Thousands of commercial web sites and blogs publish content summaries in an RSS feed, but there are billions of web pages on the Internet.
"As RSS gains wider acceptance, it will impact the way companies communicate online and the way users get information. RSS not only provides benefits for publishers and users, it also enhances Search Engine Marketing programs."
Paul J. Bruemmer. RSS: Cool Tool for Search Engine Marketing. Pandia. April 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"What if a wireless computer user could access high speed Internet anywhere -- for free? It would be just like turning on a radio and receiving a signal. That's what's happening in some areas, and others are exploring it across the nation."
National Public Radio. The Internet as a Public Utility. Talk of the Nation. April 25, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"In another sign of detente between traditional phone companies and upstart VoIP businesses, Verizon Communications, the largest of the Baby Bells, said it plans to open its 911 emergency calling infrastructure to providers of Net-based phoning.
"Verizon announced on Tuesday that it would start making its 911 network in New York City available to all voice over Internet Protocol providers this summer. How well things go in the Big Apple will determine whether Verizon will open the rest of the emergency network, according to spokesman Mark Marchand."
Ben Charny. Biggest Bell to Hand 911 Access to VoIP Operators. News.com. April 26, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Hoping to prove that automation will improve health care and cut costs, International Business Machines Corp. said Monday it's developing a test system for sharing electronic medical data among hospitals, agencies and patients.
"The Interoperable Health Information Infrastructure test project, which is expected to be operational by year end, will connect IBM sites in San Jose, Calif., Rochester, Minn., and Haifa, Israel. Researchers will use a variety of real and doctored data."
Matthew Fordahl. IBM to Test Health Care Data Sharing. GlobeandMail.com. April 25, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"One interesting thing about starting a company today versus a few years ago: Lots of cool web apps are now available that you can more or less run you company on.
"Among the apps we're currently using, or trying out, at Odeo are Basecamp (much is moving to FogBugz, though); JotSpot (internal information management); Blogger; Gmail; and FogBugz (awesome bug and customer email management)."
"None of these apps are running on our own servers or required our installation."
Evhead.com. Running Your Company on Web Apps. April 14, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology in our New Afternoon Edition. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates on Monday gave early peeks at his company's next-generation Windows operating system that he said will usher in a new era of laptops no thicker than 10 sheets of paper with day-long battery life and costing less than $1,000.
"His glimpse of the future was part of the Redmond, Wash. company's long-lasting drumbeat for the rollout of Longhorn, an operating system that Gates believes will move the computing world forward much in the way of Windows 95, which helped open up the Internet to the masses."
John Boudreau. Microsoft's Bill Gates Provides Peek at Longhorn. San Jose Mercury News. April 25, 2005.
See also:
Reed Stevenson. Microsoft Previews Next Windows, Aims to Bridge Gap. Reuters. April 25, 2005.
Susan Kuchinskas. Gates: Longhorn Plus 64-Bit Equals Power. InternetNews.com. April 25, 2005.
Elizabeth M. Gillespie. Microsoft Gives Details on Windows Release. BusinessWeek Online. April 25, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Why pay attention to games? For starters, games are the 'medium of choice' for many Millennials, with broad participation among the 30 and under population. Although part of a web of new media, technology, and social shifts, games are the quintessential site for examining these changes.
"Game cultures feature participation in a collective intelligence, blur the distinction between the production and consumption of information, emphasize expertise rather than status, and promote international and cross-cultural media and communities. Most of these characteristics are foreign, or run counter to print-era institutions such as libraries.
"At the same time, game cultures promote various types of information literacy, develop information seeking habits and production practices (like writing), and require good, old-fashioned research skills, albeit using a wide spectrum of content. In short, librarians can't afford to ignore gamers."
Kurt Squire & Constance Steinkuehler. Meet the Gamers. Library Journal. April 15, 2005.
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A Weblog Webliography includes links to interesting articles about weblogs. The articles range from authors in academics or experts on blogging and others about weblogs in education.
Kairosnews. A Weblog Webliography. April 20, 2005.
Attribution: SNTReport.com first discovered news of these weblog articles through a posting in Phil Bradley's Blog, edited by Phil Bradley.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Motorola has invested an undisclosed sum in Voice over Internet Protocol specialist Asylum Telecom, the companies announced today.
"Asylum provides ISPs, resellers and corporate customers with communications services, including VoIP, that integrate with PBX systems and GSM mobile technology."
Colin C. Haley. Motorola Grants Asylum VC. InternetNews.com. April 25, 2005.
See also:
Motorola. Motorola Ventures Invests in Asylum Telecom. (Press Release.) April 25, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"College kids looking for free music may have popularized Internet file-trading software, but the technology is now used by everyone from penny-pinching phone callers to polar explorers.
"Even the recording industry is changing its tune as labels that for years have waged a legal war against 'peer-to-peer' companies are now allowing authorized uses of the technology."
Andy Sullivan. Peer-To-Peer Users Share More Than Stolen Songs. Reuters. April 23, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"As the practice of blogging has spread, employees are coming to realize that some American corporations, which spend millions of dollars protecting their brands, are under no particular obligation to tolerate threats, real or perceived, from the activities of people who become identified with those brands, even if on their personal Web sites.
"They are also learning that the law offers no special protections for blogging certainly no more than for any other off-duty activity. As Annalee Newitz, a policy analyst with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group in Washington, put it, 'What we found is there really is quite a bit of diversity in how employers are responding to blogging.'"
Tom Zeller Jr. Blogging About the Job? Proceed at Own Risk. TechNewsWorld. April 24, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The software and services used to read XML-based news feeds are continuing to branch out as the syndication method gains popularity on the Web.
"The enterprise is becoming a target for NewsGator Technologies Inc. as it preps a server-based version of its RSS aggregation service. Meanwhile, upstarts Rojo Networks Inc. and Onfolio Inc. this week expanded the availability of their respective RSS readers, each of which puts a new twist on finding and organizing feeds."
Matt Hicks. RSS Reaches Out for Enterprise, Social Networks. eWeek. April 22, 2005.
See also:
Anne Chen. RSS Makes Enterprise Headlines. eWeek. Sep. 20, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Is the digital divide dead?
"Yes, concluded speakers at a Santa Clara University symposium Thursday where participants agreed that throwing computers at the developing world isn't the answer to global inequity.
"What's really needed is a bridge to close the knowledge divide, according to the speakers."
K. Oanh Ha. Developing World Needs Knowledge More Than Hardware, Speakers Say. SiliconValley.com. April 22, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Blinkx has improved its Web and PC search software's Smart Folders by turning them into an online content distribution tool and allowing users to share them, the company announced this week.
"The Smart Folders functionality, introduced last November, automatically populates topic folders in users' PCs with documents the Blinkx tool collects from users' hard drives and from the Internet."
Juan Carlos Perez. Blinkx Smart Folders Get Smarter. PCWorld. April 22, 2005.
See also:
Neil Rubenking. Blinkx's Hitchhikes to Smarter Folders. PCMag.com. April 20, 2005.
Juan Carlos Perez. Blinkx Unveils Smarter Desktop Search. PCWorld. Nov. 15, 2004.
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"Nearly six months into an experiment to apply the collaborative, information-gathering model known as a Wiki to the deadline-driven field of breaking news, operators of Wikinews are finding their mission rife with frustrations and challenges.
"The site, an offshoot of Wikipedia, the volunteer-maintained online encyclopedia, is facing pressures its parent organization rarely had to contend with, such as ferreting out fake posts, incorporating original sources and updating coverage to reflect rapidly changing current events."
Joanna Glasner. All the News That's Fit to Wiki. Wired News. April 22, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Yahoo on Thursday announced a new digital photo service in partnership with retail chain Target.
"The service, called Target Yahoo Photos, is designed to let people store, share and print their digital and camera-phone photos."
Dinesh C. Sharma. Yahoo, Target Team Up for Digital Photo Service. News.com. April 21, 2005.
See also:
Laurie Sullivan. Target And Yahoo Team Up To Offer Photo Sharing And Printing. InformationWeek. April 21, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Software maker Mark/Space announced on Thursday the availability of The Missing Sync software for the T-Mobile Sidekick cellular device and Apple Computer's Mac OS X operating system."
Richard Shim. T-Mobile Sidekick, Mac OS X Sync Up. News.com. April 21, 2005.
See also:
Mark/Space. Mark/Space Ships The Missing Sync for Hiptop. (Press Release.) April 21, 2005.
Peter Cohen. Missing Sync comes to T-Mobile Sidekick. MacWorld. April 20, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The public library, once the sole keeper of knowledge - collections of books, art, papers and journals - has undergone radical changes in the new, Google world.
"The chief executive of the British Library, one of the largest national libraries in the world, said public libraries had evolved dramatically with the advent of new and emerging technologies, so the role of librarian had been refashioned too.
"Lynne Brindley said tertiary courses had adapted to this new role and now prepared students for careers in 'knowledge management' and dissemination."
Ebru Yaman. Libraries Much More Than Books. Australian IT. April 20, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A three-year project to improve blind access to the internet has started at Queen's University in Belfast.
"Researchers at the university are working to devise ways to guide the blind and visually impaired through the web, as part of the Enabled initiative.
"As well as schemes involving tactile display screens and audio cues, there is also the potential to use mobile devices as audio guides for the blind."
BBC News. Project to Open Internet to Blind. April 19, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Look past the yakkers, hobbyists, and political mobs. Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out. Our advice: Catch up...or catch you later.
"Go ahead and bellyache about blogs. But you cannot afford to close your eyes to them, because they're simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself. And they're going to shake up just about every business -- including yours."
Starting today, Business Week launches its own blog at Blogspotting.net.
Stephen Baker and Heather Green. Blogs Will Change Your Business. BusinessWeek Online. May 2, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"As I’ve written before, I believe that the term 'online community' is overused and does not match with the reality of what most organizations want when they say 'we need an online community'. This post is my way of promoting other ways for us to talk about the opportunities that often fall into the 'community' bucket.
"First, let me say that “community” is a worthy goal – every business can benefit from building lasting relationships among customers, online and off. This was true long before the Internet.
"What I’m concerned with is the difference between 'community' and what I would call 'social strategies' applied to the web.
Common Craft. You Might Not Need "Community". April 20, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Local search is going social as a pair of startups launch services based on relationship-aware referrals and reviews rather than standard business listings.
"During the Kelsey Group's Drilling Down on Local conference here this week, Insider Pages and LinkedIn Corp. separately announced services that help consumers hunt for everything from attorneys or financial planners to plumbers or dog walkers by making use of their networks of online contacts and friends."
Matt Hicks. Local Search Services Tap Social Networks. eWeek. April 21, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Sony Online Entertainment, the developer of massively multiplayer online games like EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies, is the first major U.S. publisher to facilitate the buying and selling of virtual goods.
"Late Tuesday, the company unveiled Station Exchange, an auction site that allows players to spend real money on virtual weapons, armor, coins and new, high-level characters."
Daniel Terdiman. Sony Gets Real on Virtual Goods. Wired News. April 20, 2005.
See also:
Matt Hines. Sony Creates Auction Site for Game Artifacts. News.com. April 20, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"David M. Levy, a computer scientist who loves technology and gets more than 100 e-mail messages a day, makes a point of unplugging from the Internet one day each week to clear his head. Even so, with all the e-mail messages flooding in, with academic blogs bursting with continuous debate, and with the hectic pace set by an increasingly wired world, Mr. Levy says he cannot help but feel an occasional sense of information overload.
"And that, he says, is something to stop and think about.
"Mr. Levy, a professor at the University of Washington's Information School, is one of many scholars trying to raise awareness of the negative impact of communication technologies on people's lives and work. They say the quality of research and teaching at colleges is at risk unless scholars develop strategies for better managing information, and for making time for extensive reading and contemplation."
Jeffrey R. Young. Knowing When to Log Off. Chronicle of Higher Education. April 22, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Citizens' access to federal information is increasing thanks to best practices of federal depository libraries, federal-funded community technology centers, public libraries, and the National Archives and Records Administration, according to the Office of Management and Budget."
Jason Miller. OMB Highlights Best Practices in Federal Information Dissemination. GCN.com. April 19, 2005.
See also:
Office of Management and Budget. Section 213 of the E-Government Act Report to Congress: Organizations Complementing Federal Agency Information Dissemination Programs. (.pdf) April 15, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Verizon Communications Inc. has unveiled tools to allow enterprise users to get their phone calls, e-mails and instant messages through a single Web-based portal.
"In an announcement yesterday, New York-based Verizon debuted its iobi Enterprise tools, which allow users to link voice and messaging services and to have real-time remote control of phone traffic, messaging alerts and other services.
"Iobi Enterprise can be accessed through a PC client, Web browser or voice portal. Workers can retrieve voice mails via their PC, forward them using e-mail and organize them with their e-mail service. Mobile workers can link their voice services with their daily schedules, enabling voice features to follow them as they travel."
Todd R. Weiss. Verizon Debuts New Iobi Enterprise Communications Tools. ComputerWorld. April 19, 2005.
See also:
Elena Malykhina. Verizon's Iobi Enterprise Lets Businesses Link Voice And Messaging Services To Numerous Devices. InformationWeek. April 19, 2005.
Verizon Communications. Verizon Simplifies Business Communications With iobi Enterprise. (Press Release.) April 18, 2005.
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"Katie Couric and Brian Williams might do well to check out MSNBC's TV Web site for a few pointers about Web logging.
"Their boss, Jeff Zucker, told a media conference in New York that he'd support NBC's top talent writing blogs as part of adding 'a more interactive component' to the network."
Frank Barnako. Why Aren't Katie and Brian Blogging?. MarketWatch. April 20, 2005.
See also:
Reuters. NBC Chief Mulls Blogs for Top News Anchors. News.com. April 19, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Business networking firm LinkedIn has moved beyond its peer-to-business job search market, which created a network of 2.4 million users in just a few years, and has added a referral-powered directory of business service providers.
"The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company launched LinkedIn Services, a network that will connect its growing cache of professionals and business owners with local service providers, such as lawyers, accountants and technology services, the company said.
"LinkedIn Services organizes business services into eight categories: legal, financial, employment, creative, management consulting, technology, marketing, and architectural and construction services."
Tim Gray. LinkedIn Services B2B. InternetNews.com. April 19, 2005.
See also:
Kevin Newcomb. LinkedIn Adds Services Listings to Social Network. ClickZNews. April 19, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Desktop publishing specialist Adobe Systems is buying multimedia applications maker Macromedia in a $3.4 billion deal geared toward building a software powerhouse.
"The all-stock deal, announced Monday, is designed to create a better-stocked source of tools for building and distributing multimedia content across a range of operating systems and devices, the companies said.
"They also stressed that the merger will enable them to expand more rapidly into the market for audio and video applications for handhelds and other gadgets."
Matt Hines. Adobe to Buy Macromedia for $3.4 Billion. ZDNet. April 18, 2005.
See also:
Clint Boulton. Adobe to Buy Macromedia for $3.4B. InternetNews.com. April 18, 2005.
Russell Shaw. What Adobe Buying Macromedia *Could* Mean for VoIP. ZDNet. April 18, 2005.
Paul Festa. Developers React to Adobe's Macromedia Buy. News.com. April 18, 2005.
Paul Festa and Martin LaMonica. Macromedia, Adobe Make Peace for Bigger Fight. News.com. April 18, 2005.
Adobe Systems Inc. Adobe -- Macromedia Acquisition Announcement Frequently Asked Questions. (.pdf) April 18, 2005.
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"TiVo is in talks with Internet search giants Google and Yahoo over a possible deal aimed at bridging television and the Web, CNET News.com has learned.
"A partnership between TiVo and a major Internet search engine would offer expansion opportunities for both. TiVo has long talked about becoming the 'Google of TV,' eventually enabling its 3 million subscribers to search for and watch any broadcast or broadband media. Though TiVo opened the door for video downloads straight from the Web, it does not yet offer such a feature.
"Meanwhile, Google and Yahoo are investing heavily in video services."
Stefanie Olsen and Richard Shim. Search Giants Court TiVo. News.com. April 18, 2005.
See also:
Stefanie Olsen. Digital Ads Tune In. News.com. April 29, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Sony Pictures Entertainment is expected to announce today the creation of an all-digital library for its valuable video footage, the first of its kind for a major Hollywood studio.
"The library, which Ascent Media Group Inc. of Santa Monica is running with technology from Hewlett-Packard Co of Palo Alto, stores Sony's films and television shows as high-quality digital files on computers, not videotape or reels of film."
Jon Healey. Sony Is Building a Digital Library. LATimes.com. April 18, 2005.
See also:
Chris Marlowe. Sony Pictures, HP, Ascent in Digital Deal. Reuters. April 18, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"When Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A's, traded the team's two most popular pitchers last December, fans howled in disgust. A month later, Beane gave a lengthy interview to Athletics Nation, a Web log devoted to the team, explaining the deals. Afterward, the site's moderator, Tyler Bleszinski, polled his readers, asking if they now approved of Beane's trades. Fully 93 percent said yes.
"Athletics Nation is the flagship property of SportsBlogs, a series of sports Web sites that is the brainchild of Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, the founder of the left-leaning political blog Daily Kos. Daily Kos, which Moulitsas began in 2002, has succeeded in part because the site allows readers not only to respond to postings but also to start their own interactive diaries."
Daniel Terdiman. A Blog for Baseball Fans Builds a League of Sites. News.com. April 18, 2005.
See also:
Ryan Singel. Daily Kos Swings for the Fences. Wired News. April 13, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. may just be in the early stages of its growth even though its wireless e-mail device is now the world's most popular, its co-chief executive said on Monday.
"Co-CEO Jim Balsillie said he believes growth prospects are strong because wireless data is by far the best way for companies to improve productivity."
Reuters. CEO: RIM's Growth May Just Be in Early Stages. eWeek. April 18, 2005.
See also:
Canadian Press. RIM Chief Bullish on Wireless. The Globe & Mail. April 18, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"'Within two decades,' says Michael A. Keller, Stanford University’s head librarian, 'most of the world’s knowledge will be digitized and available, one hopes for free reading on the Internet, just as there is free reading in libraries today.'
"Can that really be possible? If so, where exactly does it leave libraries? More important, where does it leave culture?
"On the one hand, the digital revolution represents the ultimate democratization of knowledge and information, of which Carnegie likely would have approved wholeheartedly. On the other hand, libraries perform an essential function in preserving, organizing and to some extent validating our collective knowledge."
Daniel Akst. Do Libraries Still Matter?. Carnegie Reporter. Vol 3., No.2, Spring 2005.
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"China is the world's leading censor of the Internet, filtering web sites, blogs, e-mail, and online forums for sensitive political content, according to a study (.pdf) released Thursday.
"The OpenNet Initiative said that China employs thousands officials and private citizens to build a 'pervasive, sophisticated, and effective' system of Internet censorship."
Paul Eckert. Study Finds Pervasive Chinese Internet Controls. Reuters. April 14, 2005.
See also:
Jonathan Krim. Web Censors In China Find Success. WashingtonPost.com. April 14, 2005.
OpenNet Initiative. Internet Filtering in China in 2004-2005: A Country Study. (.pdf) April 14, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
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"Having trouble navigating cyberspace, kids? Never fear -- George Jetson is here. Jetson, Kim Possible and other pop-culture characters are part of a new interactive game designed to help children understand and stay safe on the Internet.
"Called MySecureCyberspace, the game was the result of a collaboration between Carnegie Mellon University's Cylab and its Information Networking Institute."
Associated Press. New Game Helps Kids Stay Safe on Internet. BusinessWeek Online. April 15, 2005.
See also:
Carnegie Mellon. Carnegie Mellon Launches "MySecureCyberspace" and Partners With i-SAFE America To Promote Safe, Responsible Computing. (Press Release.) April 13, 2005.
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"Rupert Murdoch has admitted he 'didn't do as much as [he] should have' to confront the digital challenges faced by his newspaper business, which owns the Sun, Times and News of the World in the UK as well as titles in the US and Australia.
"Describing himself as a 'digital immigrant' in contrast to his young daughters, who would be 'digital natives', he said the internet was "an emerging medium that is not my native language".
"In a speech to American editors in Washington, Mr Murdoch issued a stark warning to the industry, arguing that the web was 'a fast-developing reality we should grasp'."
Chris Tryhorn. We Ignore Internet at Our Peril, Murdoch Warns Editors. Guardian Unlimited. April 14, 2005.
See also:
Aline van Duyn. Murdoch Says Newspapers Must Embrace Web. MSNBC News. April 13, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Web logs — or blogs, for short — started out as a way for people to express personal views. The online journals made it easy to share off-the-cuff opinions with a small or large number of readers.
"Now blogs are moving beyond personal musings and taking on a new role: corporate communications. A growing number of businesses are using the blog format to promote products, interact with customers and shareholders, conduct market research and distribute company announcements."
Russell Shaw. Blogs The Latest Tool In Corporate Arsenals. Investor's Business Daily. April 15, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
Book Bites provide webcasts featuring streaming video of authors talking about their works.
"Book Bites are NOT reviews, they are NOT written by the marketing departments of publishers - these are authors speaking from their heart - to YOU."
Meet the Author. Bringing Books to Life!
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"AOL Instant Messenger moved instant messaging interoperability a step forward Thursday by announcing that it will work in conjunction with four mid-tier business IM systems.
"America Online Inc. launched a partner program with Jabber Inc., Omnipod Inc. and Parlano Inc., all of which sell enterprise software or services for presence and IM.
"Through the program, AOL handles the translation and routing of IM traffic among the systems so that AIM users and users of each of the four enterprise systems can conduct IM sessions, share contacts and view presence information, the Dulles, Va., company announced."
Matt Hicks. AIM Connects with Enterprise IM Vendors. eWeek. April 14, 2005.
See also:
Ben Charny. AIM Knocks on Offices' Doors. ZDNet. April 14, 2005.
Tim Gray. AOL Expands IM Network to More Partners. InternetNews.com. April 14, 2005.
Juan Carlos Perez. AOL Extends AIM's Interoperability. PC World. April 14, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"As you read this, millions of individuals are working under their own volition to create a new Dewey Decimal System for the internet.
"In the process -- perhaps without even realizing it -- they are laying the groundwork for a new contextual online advertising paradigm called 'Tagvertising.'
"The consumer phenomenon is called 'tagging' or 'folksonomies' (short for folks and taxonomy). Tagging is powerful because consumers are creating an organizational structure for online content. Folksonomies not only enable people to file away content under tags, but more importantly also share it with others by filing it under a global taxonomy that they created."
Steve Rubel. Tagvertising = Blogging 2.0?. Webpronews.com. April 13, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The Internet has provoked sweeping changes in music, journalism, medicine and personal communications.
"Now, the research community is seeing the beginnings of similar changes.
"The UNC Faculty Council recently passed a resolution asking professors to publish their research in open-access journals that offer articles free of charge, another unique spawn of online innovation."
Greg Steen. Faculty Touts Online Journals. DTH Online. April 11, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A Canadian publication ban and an American blogger clashed last week. The court-ordered ban did not survive the impact. The blogger was overwhelmed with visitors.
"And what had been Canada's own private scandal - so private Canadians had been prevented from hearing about it in full - fast traveled the borderless blogosphere."
Rondi Adamson. Borderless Blogs vs. Canada Press Ban. Christian Science Monitor. April 13, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"It happens all the time: You read an entry in an encyclopedia or other reputable source and think, 'That's not right' or 'They forgot this!'
"Microsoft Corp.'s Encarta encyclopedia is testing a system that lets everyone be an editor -- in theory at least. Readers can suggest edits or additions to entries, although the changes are vetted by editors before they reach the page."
Associated Press. Encarta Encyclopedia Tests Edit System. BusinessWeek Online. April 13, 2005.
See also:
WikiNews. MSN Encarta Introduces Wiki-like Enhancements. April 9, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Google's sort-of-announced home-video upload service went live Wednesday, in a beta format that currently accepts video contributions but does not yet allow for their viewing.
"According to the Google Video FAQ, the company is now accepting video submissions and will review them prior to the next phase, which will allow viewing of contributed videos."
Paul Kapustka. Google Home-Video Upload Site Goes Live. InternetNews.com. April 13, 2005.
See also:
Juan Carlos Perez. Google Launches Video Upload Program. PC World. April 14, 2005.
Loren Baker. Google Video Upload Program - Video Search or Blogging?. Search Engine Journal. April 13, 2005.
Loren Baker. Google Video is Live - Commence Video Production Boom. Search Engine Journal. April 13, 2005.
Chris Sherman. Google Wants Your Video. SearchEngineWatch. April 13, 2005.
Paul Kapustka. Google To Host Home-Video Uploads. Advanced IP Pipeline. April 4, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Despite concerns about the ethics of pay-for-play publishing, the number of open-access academic and medical journals is growing at a fast clip.
"In January, an open-access pioneer announced it would more than double the number of journals it offers. Meanwhile, Blackwell Publishing, the world's largest publisher of academic society journals, is dipping its toes into open access, and the number of free journals has grown by about 300 over the last few months.
"At least 1,525 journals provide free access, making up 5 to 10 percent of the world's journals. The free journals are gaining influence too: Thomson Scientific, which tracks academic publishing, found they're commonly cited by other journals, suggesting that they're well-read. Meanwhile, other journals are opening their archives to readers for free."
Randy Dotinga. Open-Access Journals Flourish. Wired News. April 11, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A collection of media organizations has urged a California appeals court to overturn a ruling that would allow Apple Computer to subpoena records from a Mac enthusiast site.
The 'friend of the court' (.pdf) filing follows a decision last month by a California superior court judge who ruled that Apple could subpoena the e-mail records of PowerPage in an attempt to uncover who at Apple leaked confidential information about an unreleased music hardware device code-named Asteroid. The judge's ruling is being appealed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of three online journalists whose records Apple is seeking.
Ina Fried. Media Groups, ISPs Side Against Apple in Dispute. ZDNet. April 11, 2005.
See also:
Ina Fried, and John Borland. Judge: Apple Can Pursue Fan Site Sources. ZDNet. March 11, 2005.
John Borland. EFF Appeals Apple Fan Site Ruling. ZDNet. March 22, 2005.
Electronic Frontier Foundation. Bloggers Speak Up in Apple Case. Deep Links. April 11, 2005.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Reporters Committee Files Brief Supporting Journalists Subpoenaed by Apple Over Marketing Plans. (Press Release.) April 11, 2005.
Court of Appeal of the State of California Sixth Appellate District. Jason O'Grady, Monish Bhatia and Kasper Jade v. Superior Court of the State of California, County of Santa Clara. (.pdf) April 7, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"This page features links to World Wide Web sites, PowerPoint slideshows, and other electronic resources used in support of presentations at Computers in Libraries 2005. Links are provided at the discretion of presenters. Additional links will be provided as they become available."
Information Today. Computers in Libraries 2005: Presentation Links.
Attribution: SNTReport.com first discovered news of these presentation links through a posting in beSpacific, edited by Sabrina I. Pacifici.
Editor's note See also SNTReport.com's prior story on K. Matthew Dames' presentation at the conference.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The word archive has an old, dusty feel about it; there seems nothing very dynamic, nothing much to stimulate young people or spark anyone's creativity. But in the world of UK television and film, the impact of archive material is about to take on a new dimension.
"The BBC, Channel 4, the British Film Institute (BFI) and the Open University have joined together to create the creative archive licence, which launches later this week."
Kate Bulkley. Creative Licence. Guardian Unlimited. April 11, 2005.
Informitv. BBC Creative Licence on Archive Copyright. April 11, 2005.
Update: Creative Commons. Creative Archive Licence Group Launches. (Press Release.) April 13, 2005. (The Creative Archive Licence Group is available online here.)
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
National Library Week is underway this week and libraries throughout the nation are celebrating with special events.
The Marin County Free Library has posted several links available this week, including songs about libraries and librarians and an annotated filmography of librarians in the movies.
The Herb Society of America has posted interesting facts and quotes about libraries.
Thompson Gale is offering free access to 30 databases for library patrons this week.
LexisNexis has a has continued with a sixth edition National Library Week "Toolkit" available for libraries to promote a partnership.
Also, ebrary is offering libraries free access to a unique collection of library science titles for a year.
Attribution: SNTReport.com first discovered news of the Gale and LexisNexis promotions through a posting in LISNews.com edited by Blake Carver.
Yahoo! Finance. ebrary Supports National Library Week, Provides ALA Members with Free Access to Library Science Collection. (Press Release.) April 7, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The tickets for the event Thursday sold out in five minutes on the Internet, and on the evening itself the lines stretched down the block. The reverent young fans might as well have been holding cellphones aloft as totems of their fealty.
"Then again, this was the New York Public Library, a place of very high ceilings and even higher cultural aspirations, so the rock concert vibe created some dissonance. Inside, things became clearer as two high priests of very different tribes came together to address the question of 'Who Owns Culture?' - a discussion of digital file-sharing sponsored by Wired magazine, part of a library series called 'Live From the NYPL.'
"Both Jeff Tweedy, the leader of the fervently followed rock band Wilco, and Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford University law professor who has opposed criminalizing file sharing, seemed to agree that just about anybody who owns a modem also owns - or at least has every right to download - culture products."
David Carr. Exploring the Right to Share, Mix and Burn. The New York Times. April 9, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Most people who write blogs just do it for kicks--as a way to vent, be creative and connect to a community.
"But profit motive may soon be added to the mix. GetLocalNews.com, a nationwide network of 6,000 local news sites, is planning to share its advertising revenue with thousands of volunteer writers.
"The idea is to reward and motivate contributors whose stories and photos generate the most traffic, which in turn fuels ad revenue, said Edgar Canon, chief executive of the San Francisco company.
Alorie Gilbert. News Network to Pay 'Citizen Journalists'. News.com. April 8, 2005.
"America Online, the world's largest online service, on Monday plans to announce a deal with XM Satellite Radio to launch a new online radio service that will deliver about 200 radio channels.
"The service, which will offer 200 channels streamed over the Web in CD-quality sound for a monthly fee beginning this summer, will be a combination of existing stations from both partners, AOL said."
Kenneth Li. AOL, XM to Launch Online Radio Service. Reuters. April 11, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Jeff Gannon, the former White House reporter for Talon News, a conservative online news outlet, has once again roiled the Washington journalism establishment.
"Gannon, whose actual name is James Dale Guckert, resigned two months ago after gaining notoriety for using a fake name while working as a reporter covering the White House. Though he had no journalism experience and previously worked as an escort, he managed to ask President Bush a question at a nationally televised news conference.
"On Friday, with an invitation from the National Press Club, he appeared on a panel about bloggers and journalists."
Dawn Withers. Ex-White House Reporter is Lightning Rod on Panel About Blogs. Chicago Tribune. April 10, 2005.
Joe Strupp. 'Gannon' Appears at National Press Club, Draws Heat. Editor & Publisher. April 9, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that develops and maintains free open content for the public, and Yahoo! Search, a leading global search engine, today announced that Yahoo! Search will dedicate hardware and resources to support Wikipedia, a community based encyclopedia written and edited by people from around the world. The contribution is the most significant dedication made to date to the Wikimedia Foundation by a corporate sponsor and is essential to furthering their global growth."
Matt Hicks. Yahoo Donates Resources to Wikipedia. eWeek. April 7, 2005.
See also:
Yahoo! Business. Wikimedia Foundation Announces Corporate Support of Wikipedia from Yahoo! Search. (press release) April 7, 2005.
Yahoo! Search Blog. Jimmy Wales on Wikipedia and Yahoo!. April 7, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
The WashingtonPost.com has published a transcript of a live chat session with A9 Search's CEO Udi Manber. The chat session occurred Thursday at 1 p.m. EST.
Question: Is fostering a sense of community, or social bonds between users, a goal for A9?
Or do you envision search remaining a solitary activity?
Udi Manber: I am a strong believer in developing communities on the web. In fact, the web is what it is today mostly because communities were encouraged right from the beginning. One example of what we are doing in this area is our OpenSearch initiative, where we allow anyone to publish and syndicate search results though an extension to RSS. As a result, more than a hundred different search columns were added by users to A9, and every user can select any one of them as part of their search results.
Leslie Walker and Udi Manber. The Future of Web Search. WashingtonPost.com. April 7, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Search-engine wiz and dot-com multimillionaire Brewster Kahle founded the Internet Archive in 1996 with a dream as big as the bridge: He wanted to back up the Internet. There were only 50 million or so URLs back then, so the idea only seemed half-crazy. As the Web ballooned to more than 10 billion pages, the archive's main server farm -- hidden across town in a data center beneath San Francisco's other big bridge -- grew to hold a half-million gigabytes of compressed and indexed pages.
"Kahle is less the Internet's crazy aunt than its evangelical librarian. Like it or not, the Web is the world's library now, and Kahle doesn't trust the guys who shelve the books. They're obsessed with posting new pages, not preserving old ones. Every day, Kahle laments, mounds of data get purged from the Web: government documents, personal sites, corporate communications, message boards, news reports that weren't printed on paper. For most surfers, once a page disappears from Google's cache it no longer exists."
Paul Boutin. The Archivist. Slate. April 7, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The Open Source Initiative has begun an effort to pare down the number of open-source licenses in widespread use.
"The OSI, a group that bestows official open-source status on licenses, will promote a small number of licenses as preferred options, according to a position paper it adopted on Wednesday. The group hasn't yet decided which of the more than 50 licenses it's so far approved will get the status.
"OSI also adopted three new administrative provisions designed to screen out new licenses that don't add much usefulness. The provisions, proposed in March, require licenses to be clearly written, simple and understandable; reusable; and not duplicative of existing licenses."
Stephen Shankland. Open-source Group to Corral Licenses. News.com. April 6, 2005.
See also:
Stephen Shankland. Open-source Overseer Proposes Paring License List. News.com. March 2, 2005.
Jim Wagner OSI Tackles License 'Explosion'. InternetNews.com. April 4, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Microsoft on Wednesday unveiled new versions of its instant messaging and blogging services with beefed-up community, video, search and advertising features.
"In partnership with Logitech, MSN Messenger now offers full-screen videoconferencing capabilities with new technology that promises to establish connections between two people more easily, including across firewalls.
"MSN Messenger users can now share in the IM window search results from Microsoft's proprietary search technology."
Evan Hansen. MSN Mixes Advertisers with Blogs. News.com. April 7, 2005.
See also:
Matt Hicks. MSN Moves Blog Service Out of Beta. eWeek. April 7, 2005.
Allison Linn. Microsoft Makes Big Advertising Push. HeraldNet. April 7, 2005.
Kim Peterson. MSN Spreads Its Message. Seattle Times. April 7, 2005.
Loren Baker. MSN Spaces and Messenger Open Up to Advertisers. SearchEngineJournal. April 7, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Yahoo plans to add functionality to Yahoo Search that will give users shortcuts to content from Wikipedia, the community-based encyclopedia.
"The links to Wikipedia content will be displayed above search results, said Yahoo and the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit group that is parent to Wikipedia, on Thursday. The feature will be added sometime during the next several weeks in the United States and in some European, Asian and Latin American markets, Yahoo said."
Dinesh C. Sharma. Yahoo to Support Wikipedia. News.com. April 7, 2005.
See also:
Wikimedia Foundation. Wikimedia Foundation Announces Corporate Support of Wikipedia from Yahoo! Search. Yahoo News. April 7, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"There is a public Web site where people can find a Web log written by some prominent members of the government information technology community. Visitors can view a list of officials in the CIO Council's Communities of Practice and read ongoing revisions to a major government document, the data reference model. Members of the public also are contributing to the discussions.
"An emerging technology called 'wiki' makes this collaboration possible. Wiki technology creates what is essentially a public Web log, one which anyone with a Web browser can add to or modify."
Aliya Sternstein. Wiki Means Fast. FCW. April 4, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The UK government is funding several projects to accelerate the adoption of open source software in the public sector, including a Sourceforge for councils.
"A UK government-funded initiative aims to accelerate the use of open source software within the public sector, through various activities including the creation of a government-specific code repository and a directory of open source providers."
Ingrid Marson. 'Critical' Open Source Initiative to Crack Public Sector. ZDNet UK. April 5, 2005.
See also:
eGov Monitor. Gov.uk Backs Open Source Drive. The Register. April 4 ,2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A group of public and private executives announced a new Web site today to help promote telework in the federal government and end the gridlock that has prevented it from flourishing.
"The Web site is intended to provide information to federal employees about how they can join the telework ranks. It also provides an online chat room called the Water Cooler for federal workers to discuss problems. The move was prompted by a survey showing that only about 20 percent of all federal workers telework."
Judi Hasson. OMB, Industry Create Telework Site. FCW.com.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Weblogs started off as a personal outpouring, a kind of digital diary. If you work on the basis that a problem shared is a problem halved, you can share with millions and - who knows? Now blogs feature everything from cant on cars, opinions on opera, to rants from the politically righteous East and West.
"But not everyone is free to say what they think."
David Reid. Blogging from East to West. BBC News. April 4, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A couple of weeks ago, a prominent dot-com warrior gave me a hot tip about Google: the next big move of the search phenom would be an assault on eBay. Think about it. Millions visit the Google site daily; why not let them search for items offered by sellers? The company already knows auctions, since it uses a bidding process for ads that accompany its search results. And eBay might be vulnerable, since it recently angered its sellers by raising commissions.
"But when I floated this theory to Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt, the Valley veteran who joined the company in 2001, he just laughed.
"Welcome to Google-think, the mind-set by which Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the brainy Stanford dudes who founded the company in 1998, hope to change our world while incidentally redefining the way corporations should be run. But Google-think is under big-time pressure."
Steven Levy. Living by Google Rules. Newsweek. April 11, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Public Social Networking sites such as MySpace or Orkut have been getting a lot of attention for creating 'sticky' sites that people simply love to visit again and again. An addictive quality of reading individual thoughts and learning about the people thinking them has become like what the 'reality-show' is to network television.
"But what really might be the most talked about trend online today is the personal weblog, or group authored 'mob-blog' and how this simple publishing trend is providing news, information, personal perspective and occasionally world changing discoveries."
Jesse Taylor. The Evolution of Social Networks: Blogworking is the New Buzz. AlwaysOn. April 4, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Joshua Schachter used to be a lot like the rest of us online. When he surfed the Web, he'd zip through interesting articles only to find that days later he couldn't remember where he had seen the stories or sites that had caught his interest. Unlike most of us, though, the 30-year-old New Yorker is a software programmer -- so he did something about this lapse in memory.
"A little over two years ago, Schachter created a program that let him tag Web links using words he would remember and then store them for easy access. So when Schachter saw a story about, say, the music videos of Icelandic singer Bjork, he would slap a 'music' tag on it and file it away.
"What makes tags more powerful than a Web bookmark is that they can be shared easily with other people."
Heather Green and Robert D. Hof. Picking Up Where Search Leaves Off. BusinessWeek Online. April 11, 2005.
See also:
Hans-Peter Brøndmo. How Will Tags Color the Web?. ClickZNews. April 4, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"There is a public Web site where people can find a Web log written by some prominent members of the government information technology community. Visitors can view a list of officials in the CIO Council's Communities of Practice and read ongoing revisions to a major government document, the data reference model. Members of the public also are contributing to the discussions.
"An emerging technology called 'wiki' makes this collaboration possible. The word comes from 'wiki wiki, Hawaiian for 'fast.' Wiki technology creates what is essentially a public Web log, one which anyone with a Web browser can add to or modify."
Aliya Sternstein. Collaborative Sites Enable Sharing of Ideas, Workload. USA Today. April 4, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Bluffton will get its own hometown newspaper next month.
"A new Web site, www.blufftontoday.com, will be launched in conjunction with the new paper."
No author. New Paper Coming to Town. LowcountryNow.com. April 4, 2005.
See also:
Bluffton Today. About BlufftonToday.com and the Bluffton Today Newspaper. March 25, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"While Pope John Paul II will largely be remembered for his influence on social issues ranging from euthanasia to AIDS, he also earned a place in history as the first pontiff to embrace computer technology."
CNET News.com Staff. Pope's Influence Includes Technology Firsts. News.com. April 2, 2005.
See also:
Ben Charny. Pope to Ping the Faithful. News.com. April 6, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Most reviews of computer games cover only the bells and whistles: how quick was the action, how cool the villains, how original the story line.
"Over the last year, however, a handful of gaming writers have been bringing a more personal touch to their work, using a narrative, experiential approach that acknowledges the effect of the game on the player.
"Their young genre even has a name: New Games Journalism, after the New Journalism of the 1960's and 70's."
Mark Wallace. Notes on Halo. The New York Times. April 3, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency at the Pentagon--which has long underwritten open-ended 'blue sky' research by the nation's best computer scientists--is sharply cutting such spending at universities, researchers say, in favor of financing more classified work and narrowly defined projects that promise a more immediate payoff.
"Hundreds of research projects supported by the agency, known as DARPA, have paid off handsomely in recent decades, leading not only to new weapons, but to commercial technologies from the personal computer to the Internet.
"The shift away from basic research is alarming many leading computer scientists and electrical engineers, who warn that there will be long-term consequences for the nation's economy."
John Markoff. Pentagon Redirects its Research Dollars. News.com. April 2, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The internet has long been valued by teachers and librarians as a powerful research and communications tool, and in the last 10 years, it has brought about a sea change in the way students find, manage, and use information. But the promise of the Web as more than just a readable, searchable resource has been slow to be realized ... until now.
"Two new Internet technologies, Weblogs and RSS (Real Simple Syndication), are redefining the way students and teachers use the Internet, turning them from mere readers into writers to the Web as well, and making it easier to filter and track the ever-growing number of resources coming online each day.
"In fast-growing numbers, educators across the country and throughout the world are finding just how powerful this new interactive Internet can be."
Will Richardson. Blogging and RSS — The "What's It?" and "How To" of Powerful New Web Tools for Educators. InfoToday. April 1, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Like the iPod, free phone service Skype is creating a coattail economy as hungry developers rush to cash in on its popularity.
"In just 18 months, Luxembourg-based Skype has signed up some 31 million registered users, promising free phone calls over a broadband connection between two members anywhere in the world.
"Now Skype is hoping to take the service even further by recruiting third-party developers to build add-on programs that might attract even more customers and possibly take its technology in new and unexpected directions."
Ben Charny. Skype Dreams for Developers. News.com. April. 4, 2005.
See also:
Ben Charny. Why VoIP is Music to Kazaa's Ear. News.com. Sep. 11, 2003.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Twenty years ago, two seminal Internet communities were born -- one on the East Coast, one on the West.
"The East Coast community, now known as America Online, has 22.4 million subscribers. The West Coast community, the Well, has just 4,000.
"Yet many credit the comparatively diminutive Well, which celebrated its 20th birthday Friday, with inspiring much of today's online interaction."
Carrie Kirby. West Coast Online Community the Well Marks 20 Years with 4,000 Subscribers. SFGate.com. April 2, 2005.
See also:
Declan McCullagh. The Well Celebrates 20th Birthday. News.com. April 1, 2005.
The Well. The Well at Twenty: A Reunion of Online Pioneers Convenes. (Press Release.) March 31, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"SourceLabs, a start-up within the open-source software market, released on Wednesday an infrastructure software stack for application deployment.
"The SourceLabs AMP Stack integrates specially configured versions of the Apache web server, MySQL database and PHP, a scripting language used to create dynamic web pages.
"The package is available free of charge. Like many distributors of open-source software, SourceLabs plans to make money by selling support and services."
Antone Gonsalves. SourceLabs Ships Open-Source Software Stack. CRN. March 30, 2005.
See also:
Martin LaMonica. Services Start-up Gives Away Open-source Bundle. News.com. March 30, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Viacom's CBS has reorganized all of its Web and digital properties under a single, newly created division. It has hired MarketWatch founder Larry Kramer to head the unit.
"The division, called CBS Digital Media, will unify both programming and ad sales for CBS.com, CBS SportsLine.com, CBSNews.com, and UPN.com. Kramer will work closely with JoAnn Ross, president of CBS Network Sales, to bring together existing ad sales operations."
Pamela Parker. CBS Forms Digital Media Division. ClickZNews. April 1, 2005.
See also:
Paul Bond. MarketWatch's Kramer to Head CBS Digital Media. Reuters. March 31, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"In a move that both validates the technology underlying Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and promises to help advance it, especially in terms of security, the Department of Defense (DoD) has taken a step toward developing its own, privately managed VoIP system.
"The DoD said it had awarded Nortel Networks a contract worth up to US$20 million to migrate the department's network to one that, through installation of new software and other upgrades, will be able to support VoIP."
Keith Regan. Defense Department Adopts VoIP Technology. E-Commerce Times. March 31, 2005.
See also:
Bob Brewin. DISA Switches on VOIP. FCW. March 30, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The world's largest chipmaker, Intel, and a unit of German media giant Bertelsmann plan to cooperate in technology for downloading and sharing films, music clips and games from the Internet.
"Intel will make chips for PCs, notebooks and mobile phones that are compatible with Bertelsmann's new online media file-sharing platform, capitalizing on a huge and growing public appetite for accessing music and other media online."
Reuters.Intel, Bertelsmann Link up for Online Media. News.com. March 30, 2005.
"Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) has started using a new data-sharing system designed to make it easier for coalition forces to manage and access warfighting information in Iraq.
"In a March 28 announcement, JFCOM officials emphasized that the Cross Domain Collaborative Information Environment (CDCIE) uses Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition and open standards that increase interoperability."
Frank Tiboni. Military Shares Openly. FCW.com. March 30, 2005.
See also:
Content Management Added To Iraq Military Portal. InformationWeek. March 30, 2005.
Xythos. U.S. Joint Forces Command Deploys Xythos to Support Multi-National Forces Iraq. (Press Release.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
The ideals of Social Software are pretty simple: using technology to manage, improve, and facilitate human interactions. One definition by Clay Shirky simply says that 'Social Software is software that supports group interaction.'
The classic Social Software is probably Lotus Notes and its brethren, wherein multiple people became able to contribute to a central database of information through distributed workstations. Though different in purpose, social networking software tends to have the same core ideal as Social Software of all sorts--managing interactions through technology.
One of the core problems with Social Software is also a core problem in the online world: managing user content.
Thus, this week I've looked at how Social Software addresses this problem by investigating three different asynchronous Social Software models, explaining each of their solutions, then considering how that would work in the online gaming world.
Social Software & Gaming: User Content. Skotos. March 3, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
A new business networking service hopes to set itself apart by deemphasizing the friends-bringing-in-friends strategy of many social networks. Instead, Common.net tries to match up people according to their professional affiliations and interests.
The idea of friends inviting friends works initially, but people eventually start receiving unwelcome invitations from people they don't know or don't know well. To avoid these problems, Common.net is advocating one-to-one networking as a discreet way of establishing trust, and the business has applied for a patent on its business method.
Common.net, which launched in February, plans to grow by partnering with larger organizations as a private-label application for connecting members and business contacts. The company is also encouraging direct access to the site and is trying to use channel partners to reach enterprise employees.
Michael Cohn. Businesspeople Get Control In New Online. InternetWeek.com. March 25, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"To qualify as intelligence, information must be both used and renewed. Good synapses fire fast and standard groupware can be too structured and rigid to support real-time, off-the-cuff data collection for workgroups or projects. Easy and informal, e-mail and IM remain the knowledge-sharing tools of choice for many employees. But after a message has been sent and read, it often drops into the network netherworld never to be seen or used again.
"To facilitate the exchange of information and to establish customized, user-friendly data archives, companies such as Cisco, Disney, Hewlett-Packard, General Motors, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Nokia, Novell, and Yahoo are turning to a new breed of collaboration tools: blogs and wikis. Each helps fill the gaps left by traditional groupware in a different way."
Michelle Delio. Enterprise Collaboration with Blogs and Wikis. InfoWorld. March 28, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
Most companies are still cautious when it comes to communicating with mainstream media outlets; employees are seldom allowed to speak with journalists without media-relations chaperones. But blogs have emerged as an exception, with more and more companies concluding that the public-relations benefits outweigh the risks. One of those companies is Sun Microsystems, which promotes employee blogging more aggressively than any other technology firm.
Wade Roush. Sun Microsystems: Blog Heaven. TechnologyReview.com. April 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
Randy Reichardt provides insight for library uses and the potential to leverage RSS technology.
Randy Reichardt. RSS: Moving Into the Mainstream. EI Updatee. March/April 2005.
Attribution: SNTReport.com first discovered news of libraries using RSS through a posting in beSpacific, edited by Sabrina I. Pacifici.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"America Online has announced a new blogging service for teens.
"The Red Blogs offering, unveiled Tuesday, allows teens and parents to select the level of privacy they want for their online diaries: A private blog can be kept locked. A semiprivate blog is locked to all but those who are invited to read it. And a public blog allows access to anybody on the Net.
"However, blogs of younger teens, those between 13 and 15, will be locked from general public viewing. Similarly, with semiprivate blogs, parents must approve the list of people invited to read the journals of younger teens."
Dinesh C. Sharma. AOL Unveils Blogging Service for Teens. ZDNet. March 29, 2005.
See also:
America Online, Inc. America Online's Red Service for Teens Introduces New Blog Product. (Press Release.) March 29, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
To give everyone simultaneous access to shared files such as animations and graphics, and to show what has been done to each along with the work remaining, Video on Location uses a software program called Virtual Office. It combines all sorts of applications -- voice conferencing, instant messaging, text chat, e-mail, calendars, project timelines, photo sharing -- into one shared view of related files, while encrypting everything to keep it private.
You may have never heard of Virtual Office, but you could be using its features one day. Microsoft Corp. announced earlier this month that it is buying the software's maker, Groove Inc., for an undisclosed sum, with plans to fold the product's capabilities into Microsoft's Office suite and the Windows operating system.
Leslie Walker. File-Sharing An Out-of-Office Experience. WashingtonPost.com. March 31, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Last Monday 21 March, Shel and I interviewed Steve Rubel for The Hobson & Holtz Report bi-weekly podcast.
"Steve is Vice President Client Solutions at CooperKatz, a New York PR firm, and author of the Micro Persuasion blog. He is arguably the most prominent and influential blogger in the PR profession either side of the Atlantic."
The Hobson and Holtz Report. An Open Conversation with Steve Rubel, Micro Persuasion. March 26, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The term 'online community' has gotten a bad rap in the business world since the late 90’s and I think I know why.
"'Community' was held up as a cornerstone of online businesses in the late 90’s. Influential books like Net Gain got executives excited about all the possibilities. The thought was that the Web would enable communities of loyal customers to form and once they do -- the cash would start rolling in. Or so they thought.
"In the aftermath, 'online community' has become a bad word- something that has come to mean 'something we tried in 1998 that didn’t work.' The reputation was well earned in a lot of situations."
Common Craft. The Online Community Hangover. March 28, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Within the miasma of the blogverse floats an ethereal blogosphere where millions of blogphiles are blogging away on their very own blogs.
"It may sound like a lot of nonsense, but that was an example of 'blog-speak,' a language that is growing as fast as the increasing interest in Weblogs."
Alyesha Asghar. Weblogs Connect People Through Journals About Everything From Book Clubs to Bands. Bluefield Daily Telegraph. March 26, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"You had to know this was coming. Today's five-minute screencast is a whirlwind tour of del.icio.us from my own perspective as a power user."
John Udell. Del.icio.us: the Screencast. InfoWorld. March 14, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"It's a journalist's job to ask questions, but they're usually aimed at outsiders. At the News & Record, a 93,000-daily circulation newspaper in Greensboro, reporters and editors are asking tough questions about the paper itself. The biggest questions: If the paper needs to change to survive, what changes should be made? What can it do, especially online, to make itself the electronic equivalent of a town square?
"Seeking the answers, the paper has launched an audacious online experiment.
"The News & Record's Web site features 11 staff-written Web journals, or blogs, including one by the editor that answers readers' questions, addresses their criticisms and discusses how the paper is run."
Associated Press. N.C. Newspaper Uses Blogs to Reach Readers. Forbes.com. March 27, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"What if the internet extended beyond computers and high-speed connections, with web pages expanding down city streets and onto the sides of buildings?
"This is the vision behind an interactive new media project called grafedia, which enables folks to make the world their canvas by publicly posting e-mail addresses or keywords that, when punched into certain mobile phones or an e-mail account, retrieve corresponding images.
"Created by John Geraci, a graduate student in New York University's interactive telecommunications program, grafedia is part public art, part advertisement and part subversion. It's also a newfangled take on old-fashioned graffiti.
Rachel Metz. It's Not Graffiti, It's Grafedia. Wired News. March 25, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Wouldn't it be great to have a good handle on what will happen this year to make sure you could plan around it? asks Mitchell Levy, CEO and executive editor of Happy About, a US publisher of books for corporations.
"In his latest book, Knowing What to Expect in 2005: Predictions from Over 50 Executives, Levy offers ten trends that he says software vendors need to factor into their business plans for the year ahead."
NevOn. Ten Trends to Watch. March 25, 2005.
See also:
Mitchell Levy. Ten Trends for 2005. Sandhill.com. March 21, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Community building is not about tools: Community building is not about tools like message boards and blogs. Community building is about people- about developing trust, relationships and emotional connections. Community is more tool-agnostic than you might think- if the people want to create a community, it will happen."
Common Craft. The Step Just Before "Community.". March 10, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"America Online has introduced a new version of its ICQ instant messaging service that adds a host of new capabilities, including an industry-leading voice chat service.
"ICQ 5, released Monday, provides many features customers have been asking for, including more customization, upgraded security and a simpler interface."
Karen D. Schwartz. AOL Unveils ICQ 5. eWeek. March 21, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Hope you enjoyed your 15 minutes, iPod. Sony, the company that invented the modern handheld entertainment industry 20 years ago, moves to reclaim the throne with the Sony PSP, a media device that plays music, movies and games and looks great.
"Flat, encased in black plastic and metal and highlighted by a pair of clear plastic shoulder buttons the PlayStation Portable exemplifies the Sony's aesthetic: a savvy combination of state-of-the-art circuitry and techno-design that screams, 'Buy me!'"
Tom Loftus. Sony Gets it Right With New PSP. MSNBC News March 24, 2005.
See also:
David Becker. Game Fans Clamor for PSP. News.com. March 24, 2005.
Andrew D. Arnold. First Look: The PSP. Time.com. March 24, 2005.
Mike Musgrove. Sony Begins Handheld-Game Adventure. WashingtonPost.com. March 23, 2005.
IGN.com. Sony PSP: The Gadget. March 23, 2005.
Arik Hesseldahl. Sony PSP Great For Games, Not Much Else. News.com. March 23, 2005.
Jesse Antonio Vargas. PSP, I Love You: For Gamers, The Date Has Finally Arrived. WashingtonPost.com. March 23, 2005.
Susan B. Shor. PSP: Great for Gaming, Mediocre for Multimedia. TechNewsWorld. March 21, 2005.
David Becker. PSP No One Trick Pony. News.com. March 21, 2005.
Rob Pegoraro. Sony's PSP Wows, but Only if You Stick to the Games. WashingtonPost.com. March 20, 2005.
Update: Robert MacMillan. PSP: A Real Life Pause Button. WashingtonPost.com. March 24, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
CommonCraft, a weblog operated by Lee LeFever, has published a cumulative (and, hopefully, ongoing) list of resources about blogs usage and adaptation in American business.
CommonCraft. List of Business Blog Resources. March 21, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
BlogWiki2005 will take place on May 19-20, 2005 in Coral Gables, Florida.
Leading experts will provide a comprehensive program featuring the emerging techonologies of blogs, Bots, Wikis and RSS/Web feed applications.
Presenters include: Gerry McKiernan, Science and Technology Librarian and Bibliographer, Iowa State University Library; Sabrina I. Pacifici, Founder, Editor, Publisher and Web Manager of LLRX.com and Author, beSpacific.com; and Marcus P. Zillman, Executive Director of the Virtual Private Library and creator of VPL White Papers and Subject Tracer™ Blogosphere.
Attribution: SNTReport.com first discovered news of the BlogWiki2005 Workshop through a posting in beSpacific, edited by Sabrina I. Pacifici.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The two leading wiki providers are retooling their services in an attempt to attract larger enterprises to using the still-emerging form of online collaboration.
"In separate announcements Monday, JotSpot Inc. and Socialtext Inc. expanded their product lines and features with a focus on the enterprise. JotSpot launched JotBox, a hardware appliance version of its wiki service, while Socialtext remodeled its user interface and expanded its e-mail capabilities."
Matt Hicks. Wiki Providers Eye the Enterprise. eWeek. March 21, 2005.
See also:
JotSpot. JotSpot Unveils New Wiki Appliance for Enterprise Workgroups. (Press Release.) March 21, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"More than a year after 'social networking' became the leading buzzword in internet startup circles, companies in the sector haven't gained the traction early enthusiasts predicted. Still, many of the bigger networking services say the number of users is growing steadily, and if they're not profitable already, they soon will be.
"Looking at all the profiles of high-profile people who are members of social-networking services, one could easily get the impression that joining an online network is a pretty hip thing to do."
Joanna Glasner. Are Socialites Still Networking?. Wired News. March 21, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"In what sounds like a tale from the heady days of the dot-com boom, a British company plans to roll out high-speed wireless networks and location-based services using street lampposts.
"Last Mile Communications says the humble lamppost can be used to provide broadband Internet access and also to store useful information about their location.
"On Tuesday, Last Mile announced that it will work with security company Qinetiq to commercialize its plans. Trials are scheduled for later this year at an undisclosed location, and Last Mile said it is confident that its service can be rolled out on a large scale."
Graeme Wearden. Lampposts to Provide Location-based Services?. News.com. March 23, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"On Friday 11th March, the British Library in London announced an ambitious historical international project to reinterpret the oldest Bible in the world, the Codex Sinaiticus. A team of experts from the UK, Germany, Russia, Egypt and the United States will combine efforts to make the Bible accessible to a global audience using innovative digital technology.
Eunice K. Y. Or. British Library Heads Project in Digitalising the World’s Oldest Bible. Christian Today. March 14, 2005.
See also:
The British Library. World’s Oldest Bible Goes Global: Historic International Digitisation Project Announced. (Press Release.) March 11, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Ask Jeeves on Tuesday made a Firefox version of its toolbar available for download."
Paul Festa. Ask Jeeves Launches Firefox Toolbar. News.com. March 16, 2005.
Ask Jeeves Blog. Got Firefox? Get Toolbar.. March 15, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The soul-baring, anything-goes, free-for-all phenomenon called the Web log has come to this:
"'This is the first of many commentaries I will make on this forum,' wrote General Motors Vice Chairman Robert A. Lutz in January when he first started his blog, fastlane.gmblogs.com, 'and I'd like to begin with, surprise, some product talk -- specifically, Saturn products.'
"Since blogs became the next big thing, an increasing number of companies have come to see them as the next great public relations vehicle -- a way for executives to demonstrate their casual, interactive side.
"But, of course, the executives do nothing of the sort. Their attempts at hip, guerrilla-style blogging are often pained -- and painful."
Amy Joyce. More PR Than No-Holds-Barred On Bosses' Corporate Blogs. WashingtonPost.com. March 19, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Sony has often won big by thinking small. Portable gizmos such as the Walkman, the Discman and the Handicam helped make this company the consumer electronics power it is today. But until now, it hasn't tried to run that play with its most successful product of the past decade, the PlayStation line of video-game machines.
"That changes Thursday, when Sony introduces the PlayStation Portable -- PSP for short. This $250 device is Sony's answer to Nintendo's Game Boy and DS handhelds. It also represents yet another try by Sony to get into the portable-media market Apple's iPod owns."
Rob Pegoraro. Sony's PSP Wows, but Only if You Stick to the Games. WashingtonPost.com. March 20, 2005.
Related:
Tom Ham. With a New Toy, Plenty of Titles to Play. WashingtonPost.com. March 20, 2005.
See also:
Matthew D. Sarrel. Sony PSP. PC Magazine. March 17, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Sun Microsystems wants to send Java closer to the open-source world, yet keep it safe from harm.
"It will modify its licenses to make access to the Java source code easier, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company said Wednesday. But it stopped short of creating an open-source license--something it has resisted, despite calls to do so.
"Over the next month, Sun intends to introduce two licenses for using Java 2 Standard Edition, the software for building and running Java programs on desktop PCs. The licenses are expected to be used for the Mustang edition of J2SE, which is due in the first half of 2006."
Martin LaMonica. Door to Java Source Code Opens a Crack Wider. News.com. March 16, 2005.
See also:
Martin LaMonica. Sun Reluctant to Make Java Open Source. News.com. March 17, 2004.
Stephen Shankland. Sun Wrestles With Open-Source Java. News.com. July 2, 2004.
Martin LaMonica. Sun Looks to Sweeten Java. News.com. March 15, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Shares in Research In Motion Ltd. moved up sharply Wednesday after the company agreed to settle a potentially ruinous American patent lawsuit by paying $450 million US.
"The maker of the BlackBerry mobile e-mail device said that under the settlement of the three-year-old litigation, NTP Inc. of Arlington, Va., is granting RIM "an unfettered right to continue its BlackBerry-related wireless business without further interference from NTP or its patents."
Gary Norris. Research In Motion Stock Surges After BlackBerry Lawsuit Settled for US$450M. National Post. March 17, 2005.
See also:
Richard Shim. RIM Settles NTP Patent Suit. News.com. March 16, 2005.
Research in Motion. Research In Motion And NTP Agree To Resolve Litigation. March 16, 2005.
Michael Singer. RIM's BlackBerry Cleared For U.S. Markets. InternetNews.com. March 16, 2005.
Eric B. Parizo. Courts, Competition Can't Stop RIM's Dominance. SearchMobileComputing.com. Aug. 18, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Google launched a developers' site, offering up code to the open source community.
"Following the familiar developers' network model, the opener for Google Code includes software source code developers are invited to use, as well a directory of Google APIs and an online forum for discussion and peer support."
Susan Kuchinskas. Google Opens Developer Network. InternetNews.com. March 17, 2005.
See also:
David Becker. Google Courts Open-Source Developers. News.com. March 17, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Forget 'The Bachelor' or 'The Apprentice' or even the wonderfully named 'Wife Swap.' The 'reality' television that I try not to miss is CNN's 'Inside the Blogs' segment. It has been a staple on Judy Woodruff's 'Inside Politics' program since its debut on Feb. 14.
"CNN recognizes that nothing is more grounded in 'reality' than the news. True, a cynic would argue that the feature, which only lasts for a few minutes each afternoon, has all of the intrinsic drama of watching people as they stand in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
"Nevertheless, 'Inside the Blogs' is valuable. It's shining a light on the most emotional and widely discussed issue in journalism today. The show -- to my eyes - merely contains equal parts bloggers' opinions and unwitting entertainment. But it's significant that CNN is dedicating time everyday to the blogs."
Jon Friedman. CNN Gives Bloggers Some Respect. MarketWatch. March 18, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"As the bitter debate over computer file sharing heads toward the Supreme Court, the pro-technology camp is growing increasingly anxious.
"Some technologists warn that if the court decides in favor of the music and recording industries after hearing arguments in the MGM v. Grokster case on March 29, the ruling could also stifle a proliferating set of new Internet-based services that have nothing to do with the sharing of copyrighted music and movies at issue in the court case.
"Some of those innovations were on display here at the Emerging Technology Conference, attended by about 750 hardware and software designers. The demonstrations included Flickr, a Canadian service that has made it possible for Web loggers and surfers to easily share and catalog millions of digital photographs."
John Markoff. As File Sharing Nears High Court, Techies Worry. News.com. March 17, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Social networks continue to blossom online by appealing to people's deepest needs for connection. What promise do these technologies offer for news sites?
"In the last two years social networking sites mushroomed across the net, heavily fertilized by hype and the promise of six degrees of connection between socially dispersed people who shared common interests or friends. Now companies actively apply social networking principles to shift more stock and lure more clickthrus to their site."
Daithí Ó hAnluain. Social networks: All Around the Net, But Underused by News Sites. Online Journalism Review. March 11, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A mass market exists for the mobile Internet, but it will remain untapped until designers make simpler Web pages that can be viewed properly on handsets, the inventor of the World Wide Web said.
"'(The mobile Internet) will be a huge enabler for the industry ... and for big profits,' Tim Berners-Lee told a seminar on Thursday on the future of the Web. "
Daniel Frykholm. Web Design Hampers Mobile Internet, Pioneer Says. Reuters. March 17, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
On Thursday, K. Matthew Dames, SNTReport.com's executive editor, co-chaired the "Communities & Collaboration" track at Computers in Libraries 2005. Dames also gave the first presentation in that track, "Social Software 101," which is available in .pdf format below.
Editor's Note: I was very excited about this conference because I believed that the program Steven Cohen and I created contained some of the most valuable material in the entire conference. From the feedback I have received thus far, it seems that the attendees left each session with a lot of fresh ideas about using digital collaboration tools in their workplaces. If today's organizers and speakers were able to spur some of our audience to begin testing these tools for personal use, seek to implement them in the workplace, or merely spur enough curiosity to warrant further investigation, the track was a success.
I would like to thank all the people that attended Computers in Libraries 2005, and I also would like to congratulate Information Today on its 20th year as organizer of CIL.
There are some people, however, for which I reserve a special thanks. Thank you to Will Richardson (editor of Weblogg-ed), Aaron Schmidt (editor of Walking Paper), Michael Stephens (editor of Tame the Web), Megan Fox, and Blake Carver (editor of LISNews.com) for contributing a wealth of rich content and ideas to Thursday's sessions.
Thank you to Nancy Garman, Information Today's Director of Conference Program Planning, and Jane Dysart, CIL 2005 program chair, for their organizational guidance.
And a huge thank you to Steven Cohen, editor of Library Stuff. It was an honor working with you, a pleasure to finally get to know you, and I sincerely hope we can work together again to advance the information sciences and the profession called librarianship.
K. Matthew Dames. Social Software 101. (.pdf). March 17, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Further nudging outward the boundaries of online publishing, Stanford University Professor Larry Lessig will put his 1999 book 'Code' online today and invite Internet users to help him write an updated version.
"A noted copyright expert and proponent of free software, Lessig is putting the 297-page treatise about technology, culture and regulation on the Web in the form of a 'wiki,' a site that can allow people to freely edit its contents. The law professor will take the contributions at http://codebook.jot.com and edit them into a printed version of the book."
Michael Bazeley. Professor's Online Publishing Experiment. San Jose Mercury News. March 16, 2005.
See also:
JotSpot. Lawrence Lessig and JotSpot Invite the Internet Community to Update 'Code'. (Press Release). March 16, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Amazon.com has developed a set of technologies that let Web publishers syndicate specialized search results.
"A9.com, the search unit of online retailer Amazon, on Wednesday unveiled OpenSearch, a protocol for content publishers to repurpose search listings for their own design. The system would allow a legal Web site to display a top list of legal resources, for example. Or a chess aficionado Web site could show search results for new chess games online."
Stefanie Olsen. Amazon Syndicates Web Search. News.com. March 16, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Online news is shifting once again, as consumers turn to blogs, Really Simple Syndication (RSS) newsreaders and RSS-based search engines as new platforms to access information. More than 6 million Americans – 5 percent of all Internet users - are now getting news and classified information via RSS feeds, according to a January 2005 report from Pew Internet & American Life Project, 'The State of Blogging.'
"The growing popularity of RSS among information-hungry consumers is having a direct impact on publishers’ audience acquisition and Web monetization strategies. Although journalist/blogger Tom Biro reports that 160 newspapers in the U.S. are offering RSS feeds of their content, only a few have comprehensive strategies for distributing and monetizing the feeds. Most, like the Ventura County (Calif.) Star, are experimenting and watching carefully to see what’s next."
Susan Mernit. RSS Providers Analyze Newspapers’ Opportunities. The Digital Edge. March 2005.
See also:
Susan Mernit. Guardian Unlimited Embraces RSS. The Digital Edge. March 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Yahoo is preparing to introduce a new service that blends several of its Web site's popular features with two of the Internet's fastest growing activities — blogging and social networking.
"The hybrid service, called 'Yahoo 360,' won't be available until March 29, but the Sunnyvale-based company decided to announce the product late Tuesday after details were leaked to The Associated Press and other news outlets.
"The service is designed to enable Yahoo's 165 million registered users to pull content from the Web site's discussion groups, online photo albums and review section to plug into their own Web logs, or blogs, the Internet shorthand used to describe online personal journals."
Michael Liedtke. Yahoo Tests Blend of Blogging, Networking. USA Today. March 16, 2005.
See also:
Forrester Blog. Yahoo! Announces Blogging and Social Networking Betas. March 15, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"When Chuck D and the Fine Arts Militia released their latest single, 'No Meaning No,' several months ago, they didn't try to stop people from circulating free copies on the Internet. They encouraged it.
"They posted the entire 3-minute, 12-second song and its various vocal, drum and guitar components online and invited everyone to view, copy, mix, remix, sample, imitate, parody and even criticize it.
"The result has been the creation of a flood of derivative work ranging from classical twists on the hip-hop piece to video interpretations of the song. The musicians reveled in the instant fan base. They were so pleased that they recently decided to publish their next entire album, due later this spring, the same way, becoming the first major artists to do so."
Ariana Eunjung Cha. Creative Commons Is Rewriting Rules of Copyright. WashingtonPost.com. March 15, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A new genre of self-expression is catching on with business and technology executives, and it has nothing to do with the next board meeting or industry speaking engagement. It's blogging, and even executives at the very top are doing it.
"In this package, we profile five executives who see great advantages in blogging, despite potential legal, professional, and personal risks. One's a former CIO of Utah. Another runs a large Christian-book publishing company. There's also the CEO of an Internet-content provider, an IBM chief scientist, and Disney's engineering VP. Their motivations are straight Leadership 101, and they all offer insights into how blogging can be a valuable business tool."
Jim Nash. Look Who's Blogging. InformationWeek. March 7, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Imagine that only certified and trained employees could make phone calls. And that each phone call took 15 minutes to initiate and cost 75 cents a minute, plus 25 cents per person if you wanted a conference. Do you think this might bog down your business?
"That's how the vast majority of Web conferencing services, such as WebEx and Genesys Meeting Center, work. Most are difficult to use, the meter is always running, only licensed and trained organizers can create meetings, and the services are generally not conducive to spur-of-the-moment collaboration.
"For Web conferencing to move beyond sales and marketing presentations and into everyday confabs for project teams, some things need to change. In this story, we look at services that offer low, flat-rate pricing, simple interfaces, and in many cases, innovative ways to start meetings and invite participants on the fly."
Robert P. Lipschutz. Instant Meeting: Easy Web Conferencing. PC Magazine. March 2, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Most file-sharing programs aren't the most upstanding citizens of the computing world. Yes, the entertainment industry hates them for the way they're used to download movies and albums without paying -- but many of these programs also fail to treat their own users well, often installing an unadvertised, unwanted load of advertising and spyware.
"BitTorrent is different. This free, open-source program offers a spyware- and nuisance-free installation. And while it is certainly handy for downloading movies and other copyrighted material for free, it's also increasingly used to distribute software and entertainment legally.
"This makes BitTorrent (www.bittorrent.com) not only a fascinating test case for legal experts, but it also looks a lot like the logical fusion of peer-to-peer file-sharing and traditional downloading. It's too robust to stamp out with lawsuits, but too effective not to adopt for commercial use."
Rob Pegoraro. BitTorrent May Prove Too Good to Quash. WashingtonPost.com. March 13, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Microsoft Corp. Thursday announced it will acquire collaboration software firm Groove Networks Inc.
"Groove, which makes P2P (peer-to-peer) software that allows geographically dispersed workers to collaborate over the Internet, was founded by Ray Ozzie, creator of Lotus Notes.
"Ozzie will join Microsoft as a chief technology officer and report to Bill Gates, Microsoft's founder and chief software architect."
Michael Myser. Microsoft Buys Groove Networks. eWeek. March 10, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Even as online pundits criticize traditional news organizations as slow, biased and technologically challenged, a group of bloggers is trying to use old-fashioned telephone conference calls to share their ideas with newspaper and television journalists.
"The bloggers, who describe themselves as liberal or progressive, say the conference calls are intended to counter what they regard as the much stronger influence of conservative pundits online. Bob Fertik, president of Democrats.com, the host of the two calls so far, views them as a step toward getting their reports out to mainstream news organizations.
"While there is no way to know precisely who dialed in, reporters from news organizations including CBS, The Washington Post, Newsweek, MSNBC and The National Journal asked for a call-in number, according to one participant.
"'We hope to build a bridge,' Mr. Fertik said, adding that different bloggers would be invited to share their reporting on each call. 'We hope that good credible stories that are broken on the Internet find their way into coverage in the mainstream media.'"
Jonathan D. Glater. Liberal Bloggers Reaching Out to Major Media. The New York Times. March 14, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Today, OJR launches a new feature, designed to help 'grassroots' journalists, bloggers, students and other Web publishers without formal journalism training to write more accurate and informative content.
"We start with three tutorials, intended to help a beginner write and report clearly, accurately and ethically. But these are not static lessons. Instead, we present them as wikis, articles that any OJR registered user can add to or edit."
Robert Niles. OJR introduces New Wikis on Journalism. Online Journalism Review. March 8, 2005.
See also:
Online Journalism Review. Ethics.
Online Journalism Review. Reporting.
Online Journalism Review. Writing.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Microsoft unveiled on Tuesday a series of upgrades to its corporate instant messaging and Web conferencing products in a major push to sell collaboration software to businesses.
"The world's largest software maker is hoping to tap into growing demand by companies that want their employees to work together from their desks, rather than in face-to-face meetings that can involve costly business travel.
"'Communications technology is changing the way people do information work,' said Jeff Raikes, Microsoft's group vice president in charge of the division that makes Office and other business software. 'But today, most of that communications is really very separate.'"
Reuters. Microsoft Updates IM, Web Conferencing Products. News.com. March 9, 2005.
See also:
Ben Charny. Microsoft to Punch Up Corporate IM. News.com. March 6, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The earliest adopters in America already have theirs, those black slabs of glistening black plastic and metal.
"The object of desire is Sony's PlayStation Portable, a hand-held video gaming device aimed at redefining entertainment on the go - and not just for young gamers. The company often refers to the PlayStation Portable, the descendant of the original PlayStation, born 10 years ago, as the first truly integrated portable entertainment system."
Michel Marriott. Changing the Game, PlayStation Goes Mobile. The New York Times. March 10, 2004.
Engadget. Sony PlayStation Portable/PSP Hands-On Review. Dec. 20, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Senators John McCain and Russ Feingold reassured the Internet community that bloggers will not be regulated by federal campaign finance laws.
"The senators, who authored the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 known as the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reform law, issued a statement on Tuesday in response to comments made by a Federal Elections Commission commissioner in a CNET News.com interview last week.
"'The latest misinformation from the antireform crowd is the suggestion that our bill will require regulation of blogs and other Internet communications,' they said. 'This issue has nothing to with private citizens communicating on the Internet.'"
Marguerite Reardon. Senators Reassure Bloggers. News.com. March 9, 2005.
See also:
Ellen Weintraub. Bloggers, Chill Out Already!. News.com. March 7, 2005.
Declan McCullagh. The Coming Crackdown on Blogging. News.com. March 3, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"There's a lot of great content out there on those millions of blogs, but finding the good ones related to your own interests can be a challenge. A set of tools from Blogstreet can help.
"Finding good blog content can be a challenge. One way is to explore the 'blogrolling' links that many bloggers create to other blogs. But you're never really sure if someone has linked to another blog because they like the blog, or out of obligation or some other reason.
"Another approach is to use one a blog search engines, such as Daypop, Bloglines, Technorati, Feedster and many others (see Peter Scott's excellent Weblogs Compendium for links).
Chris Sherman. A Cool Blog Discovery Tool. SearchEngineWatch. March 9, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Flight attendant Ellen Simonetti and former Google employee Mark Jen have more in common than their love of blogging: They both got fired over it.
"Simonetti had posted suggestive photographs of herself in uniform, while Jen speculated online about his employer's finances. In neither case were their bosses happy when they found out.
"Though many companies have Internet guidelines that prohibit visiting porn sites or forwarding racist jokes, few of the policies directly cover blogs, or Web journals, particularly those written outside of work hours."
Anick Jesdanlun. Blog-Related Firings Focus on Policy. WashingtonPost.com. March 6, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"About 100 Chinese music celebrities gathered at Beijing's Capital Stadium Saturday night standing on a huge CD-shape platform and singing for public support in the country's fight against rampant music piracy. The stadium was nearly full, and organizers said 150 million more watched on television.
"Pop stars sang their hit songs and occasionally urged their fans not to buy pirated products. Organized by the central government and associations in entertainment circles, the concert was just one of a series anti-piracy events going on in Beijing Saturday, aiming to show officials' and entertainers' determination to hit hard on piracy. Events included a forum, a Beijing anti-piracy declaration and a public destruction of pirated products.
"'If Beijing fails to solve piracy soon, we will not deserve to host the Olympics in 2008,' said Feng Xiaogang, a Chinese director who was recently named the country's proponent of copyright protection."
Xinhua. Officials, Entertainers Stage Events to Fight Piracy. Peoples Daily Online. Feb. 27, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A new generation of handheld games machines is expected to do for gaming what the iPod did for music: take our favourite digital pastimes away from the computer and out into the everyday world.
"Where computer games were once a solitary affair, restricted to the home and prone to stifle social skills, the new handsets are about to take button-mashers and inter- active entertainment on the road.
"Train carriages, bus stops and the workplace are the new battlegrounds, where players can now compete against one another. There are even lessons for the schoolroom. Welcome to the mobile games club, which can convene anywhere, at any time.
Stuart Andrews. Welcome to the Mobile Social Club. Times Online. March 6, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The Office of Management and Budget released two reports last week touting the progress agencies have made in e-government and cybersecurity during fiscal 2004.
"The congressionally mandated reports citing achievements over the last fiscal year come at a time when members of Congress have issued dismal cybersecurity grades to key agencies and expressed dissatisfaction with development of the various e-gov projects.
"OMB pointed to the A FirstGov Web site, which provides information and services in both English and Spanish, and Regulations.gov as examples of ways agencies are opening up to the public and encouraging more participation in government."
Daniel Pulliam. OMB Optimistic About E-gov and Cybersecurity Progress. GovExec.com. March 7, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"When the dot-com bubble burst five years ago, the promise of interactive TV - or the convergence of TV and the Internet - seemed to pop with it. The failure of Yahoo's business channel on the Web, called Finance Vision, underscored the hefty costs and little audience demand there was at the time for online TV.
"That's all changed as distribution, production and talent (thanks to bloggers) costs have declined, and more people are on high-speed connections. What's more, Democrats may be able to lay claim to being the first channel on the Web dedicated to their political cause.
"DemsTV.com, a new Web Video Show, produced by and featuring Democratic bloggers, consultants, and activists, is a cross between a political talk show and a game show."
Bambi Francisco. DemsTV.com Launches. MarketWatch.com. March 8, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates trumpeted Office's role in integrating communications as he unveiled further plans for the company's 'Istanbul' client and other real-time communications products during a launch event here on Tuesday.
"Microsoft brought its combined instant-messaging and telephony client under the Office umbrella, renaming it Office Communicator 2005 and announcing plans to release it to manufacturing in the next 90 days."
Matt Hicks. Microsoft Displays Real-Time Ambitions. eWeek. March 8, 2005.
See also:
Dennis Callaghan. Microsoft Adds Voice, Video to IM Client. eWeek. Oct. 19, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Four years ago, a wealthy options trader named Jimmy Wales set out to build a massive online encyclopedia ambitious in purpose and unique in design. This encyclopedia would be freely available to anyone. And it would be created not by paid experts and editors, but by whoever wanted to contribute. With software called Wiki - which allows anybody with Web access to go to a site and edit, delete, or add to what's there - Wales and his volunteer crew would construct a repository of knowledge to rival the ancient library of Alexandria.
"In 2001, the idea seemed preposterous. In 2005, the nonprofit venture is the largest encyclopedia on the planet. Wikipedia offers 500,000 articles in English - compared with Britannica's 80,000 and Encarta's 4,500 - fashioned by more than 16,000 contributors. Tack on the editions in 75 other languages, including Esperanto and Kurdish, and the total Wikipedia article count tops 1.3 million."
Daniel H. Pink. The Book Stops Here. Wired. March 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Not all dot-com dreams died when the Internet stock bubble burst. Amazon.com, the king of the dot-com era, is keeping some of them alive in 2005 inside a small office on Capitol Hill.
Light floods into a sparse whitewashed room above a yoga studio, where former Amazon director Josh Petersen and his cohorts sit around a large table plugging away on laptops.
"The seven-member group has created a Web community based on sharing personal goals and dreams with a worldwide audience."
Kristi Heim. Social networking: A Link to Like Minds. The Seattle Times. March 7, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Microsoft is beefing up its corporate instant messaging product lineup with new extras like firewall traversal and collaboration, as it prepares to launch its code-named Istanbul desktop communications client, possibly as early as Tuesday.
"All the deal making and development work is an attempt to kick-start a market for corporate instant messaging, which hasn't not grown as quickly as anticipated although a growing number of businesses are increasingly making use of popular desktop IM clients.
"On Monday, at the VON Spring 2005 Conference in San Jose, Calif., Microsoft is expected to trumpet a recent partnership with online collaboration provider Radvision and routing specialist Jasomi Networks. Radvision and Jasomi are essentially providing add-ons for Microsoft's Live Communications Server 2005 (LCS), which is software that initially launched as a way for companies to offer secure Instant Message to their employees."
CNET News.com Staff. Microsoft to Punch Up Corporate IM. News.com. March 7, 2005.
See also:
David Becker. Microsoft IM Release Expected Soon. News.com. Feb. 25, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"For me, the defining moment at the 'Blogging, Journalism and Credibility' conference held at Harvard recently came in an exchange between Jimmy Wales, creator of Wikipedia, and Jill Abramson, managing editor of The New York Times. Abramson was responding to the idea that blogs could displace traditional news-gathering organizations. 'Do you know how much it takes to run our Baghdad operation?' she asked. 'One million dollars.'
"Wales responded that the Encyclopedia Britannica is a $350 million operation but Wikipedia is 'kicking its butt.'"
David Weinberger. Blogs and the Values of Journalism. KM World. March 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Roughly 75 million Americans used the Internet to connect to politics in 2004. They sought election news, exchanged political e-mail, made campaign contributions and blogged, according to a post-election study conducted by The Pew Internet & American Life Project. This figure equals roughly 37 percent of the adult population, and 61 percent of American Internet users.
"The number of online political news consumers, meanwhile, increased dramatically compared to 2000, growing from 18 percent of the U.S. population in 2000 to 29 percent in 2004."
Rob McGann. Internet Played Bigger Role in U.S. Politics in '04. ClickZNews. March 6, 2005.
See also:
Lee Rainie et al. The Internet and Campaign 2004. (.pdf) Pew Internet and American Life Project. March 6, 2005.
Michael Cornfield. The Internet and Campaign 2004: A Look Back at the Campaigners. (.pdf) (Commentary.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The AARP launched an online service Monday designed to link workers aged 50 and older with job opportunities from a group of preselected employers - the latest in AARP's efforts to draw attention to the concerns of an aging work force.
"The program, which AARP calls its Workforce Initiative, centers on a Web site that highlights 13 employers, including information about their benefits programs, locations and work conditions. The site also allows members to link to the employers' Web sites for further information or to fill out job applications. Several of the selected employers are also staffing agencies that will attempt to link job searchers with their clients."
Associated Press. Web Site to Link Older Workers with Jobs. SeattlePI.com. March 1, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"In many ways, Lisa Butterworth is the very image of Mormon devotion; she lives in Boise, Idaho, with her husband and their three children younger than 4, faithfully attending church and teaching Sunday school.
"But then there is her Web log, or blog, FeministMormonHousewives.blogspot.com. Unlike the more mainstream Mormon blogs - known collectively as the Bloggernacle - that by and large promote the faith, this online diary focuses on the universal challenges of mothering young children and on frustration with the limited roles women have in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
Debra Nussbaum Cohen. Faithful Track Questions, Answers and Minutiae on Blogs. The New York Times. March 5, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"It would be difficult to find anyone who spends time on the Internet, or indeed who reads newspapers, who has not heard of blogs. Wikis are less well known, though Wikipedia, the free online collaborative encyclopedia is helping to change that.
"The vast majority of blogs are individual personal journals, many of which have some technical content, but most of which are made up of individual opinions about politics or hobbies. Most of the discussion about blogs is centered around their affect on mainstream journalism, their power as a new communication channel and voice of the people, and how this will impact society.
"All this is interesting, but what does it have to do with implementing content or knowledge management, or enterprise collaboration applications?"
Lauren Wood. Blogs & Wikis: Technologies for Enterprise Applications?. The Gilbane Report. March 2005.
Related:
Lost Boy. Bootstrapping a Corporate Wiki. Feb. 1, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Yahoo announced Tuesday that its search network is embracing Web services and that its commercial subsidiary is taking a new name.
"The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company has created the Yahoo Search Developer Network, which co-founder Jerry Yang is set to introduce at the Search Engine Strategies Conference here. The network will allow software developers to create new applications (with the aid of application programming interfaces, or APIs) on top of Yahoo search, including images, video, news and local search.
Stefanie Olsen. Yahoo Opens Up Its Search Toolbox to Developers. News.com. March 1, 2005.
See also:
Tim Gray. Past is Prologue For Chief Yahoo. InternetNews.com. March 1, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Most webmasters and online business owners know that a blog can bring you additional revenue from advertising, and more traffic from search engines. Then there's the additional benefit of having a great way to spark productive dialogue between you and your prospects.
"But did you know that your blog itself may be worth thousand of dollars to you in its present form?"
Tinu Abayomi-Paul. The Top 4 Ways To Profit From The Hidden Revenue In Your Blog. WebProNews. Feb. 28, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Bloggers frighten me.
"Well, a little, anyway.
"I haven't reached the point where I can completely trust them to be accurate or comprehensive or analytical or, especially, fair. Sometimes, I'm not even sure if they worry about such conventions of journalism."
Jon Friedman. Why the Bloggers Frighten Me (a Little). MarketWatch. Feb. 28, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Day by day, James Keith became more obsessed with the BTK serial killer. Just one more clue, he thought, and he could crack the case that had baffled authorities in Wichita, Kan., since the 1970s.
"'I was going 24 hours a day, even in my sleep, trying to figure it out,' he said. 'I was totally obsessed. My daughter woke me up one night and told me I was having a dream about it.'
"But Keith is no homicide cop. He's an aerospace contract worker from Albuquerque, N.M. - one of hundreds of amateur cybersleuths who publish Web logs and post to Web sites and message boards devoted to the BTK case."
Steve Brisendine. Amateur Cybersleuths Flocking to BTK Case. SeattlePI.com. March 2, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The first advertisement appeared in USA Today a week ago, right on schedule. People from around the world had stayed up all night waiting for it, talking in chat rooms and online forums. It had to be a clue, they thought. Everything before it had been a clue.
"'LOST. The Cube,' read the ad, posted at the top of the paper's 'Notices' section. 'Reward Offered. Not only an object of great significance to the city but also a technological wonder.'
"The cryptic notice, along with several subsequent ads in The New York Sun, The Times of London and Monday's Sydney Daily Telegraph, are the first tangible signs of a mystery called 'Perplex City' beginning to unfold online."
John Borland. Blurring the Line Between Games and Life. News.com. Feb. 28, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Doctors may no longer make house calls, but they are answering patient e-mail messages - and being paid for it.
"In a move to improve efficiency and control costs, health plans and medical groups around the country are now beginning to pay doctors to reply by e-mail, just as they pay for office visits. While some computer-literate doctors have been using e-mail to communicate informally with patients for years, most have never been paid for that service."
Milt Freudenheim. Digital Rx: Take Two Aspirins and E-Mail Me in the Morning. The New York Times. March 2, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Beyond vague talk about Google having developed a much more efficient process, the project's specifics are secret. At Harvard, for instance, Google won't allow reporters to visit or photograph the scanning currently being done -- of 40,000 volumes as a kind of pilot project, just to make sure the books don't get damaged or lost -- at the university library's 5-million-volume off-campus storage facility.
"But the aims seem transparent enough. It will bring to the masses these great research institutions, full of books one would normally need a plane ride and permission to access, and make them as easy to search for and within as a particular city's restaurant listings."
Steve Johnson. How Google Will Scan the World, 1 Book at a Time. Chicago Tribune. Feb. 25, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Increasingly, those tasked with sharing knowledge and learning within firms are coming to see enterprise KM and information systems as an enabling layer for more lightweight, personal services rather than the locus for all knowledge sharing and collaboration activities in themselves.
"The future is about networks, not systems, and networks flourish when the intelligence is at the edges rather than the centre. Interestingly, those professions that depend most heavily upon social networking often have the most centralised and least network-centric KM systems, but this is perhaps a reflection of the fact that they were early adopters during the first (system-centric) wave of KM IT during the 1990's. Rather than abandon this investment, or let their systems wither on the vine, perhaps the new wave of social network thinking can be applied to get the most out of these systems and make them easier for users to engage with."
Headshift. Social Software as a Force Multiplier for Existing Corporate Systems. Feb. 15, 2005.
See also:
Headshift. Blogs Are Not the Only Fruit. Jan. 6, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Josh Schachter is a true techie. Though the 30-year-old New Yorker is a programmer at a financial-services company, in his off hours he writes a blog and works on his own software as a hobby. When he runs into a problem, Schachter's answer is to cobble together some software to fix it.
"Which is exactly what he did a little over two years ago. As Schachter began collecting links he wanted to write about for his blog, he needed a place to store them. By the end of 2003, Schachter had turned his own creation into a service called del.icio.us."
Heather Green. A Tag Team's Novel Net Navigation. Business Week Online. Feb. 28, 2005.
The Associated Press now has made all of its RSS feeds available directly through the AP Website. Before, the AP feeds were available exclusively through Yahoo! News.
The Associated Press venture follows similar, recent moves (also in mid-February) from the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal to publish their RSS feeds.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"As I’ve mentioned in the past, Blogdigger is one of my favourite RSS search engines, and since I had the chance to interview Greg Gershman, founder of Blogdigger itself, I couldn’t let this chance go by."
Sid Yadav. Interview With Greg Gershman, Founder of Blogdigger. The Daily Rundown. Feb. 22, 2005.
Editor's note: Greg Gershman also keeps notes on the development of Blogdigger at his Blogdigger Development Blog.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Since the first Palm Pilot, handhelds running the Palm OS have communicated with desktop computers via HotSync, its self-developed method of information synchronization. This will soon come to an end.
"PalmSource is going to switch to SyncML, a widely used, open standard for information synchronization."
Ed Hardy. PalmSource Moving Away from HotSync. Brighthand. Feb. 22, 2005.
Related:
Daniel Robinson. PalmSource Sees Future on Phones. Computing. Feb. 17, 2005.
See also:
Ed Hardy. PalmOne May Be Committing Itself to Wi-Fi. Brighthand. Feb. 23, 2005.
Uwe Hansmann, et al. SyncML Applications. Informit.com. Dec. 12, 2003.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Flickr boasts 270,000 users, four million photos, 30 percent monthly growth in users, and 50 percent monthly growth in photos. And these numbers don't even begin to tell the story. Flickr is simply the manifestation of the perfect storm of camera phones, consumer broadband, blogs, RSS, and folksonomy tags.
"Flickr is part of something else too, something radical: the massive sharing of what we used to think of as private data. Photos, bookmarks, and journals used to be considered personal. The social networking revolution--which encompasses everything from Flickr and del.icio.us to blogs and wikis to P2P itself--encourages us to share everything."
Richard Koman. Stewart Butterfield on Flickr. O'Reilly Network. Feb. 4, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"After years of juggling a full-time job and a high-profile blog, Jason Kottke is calling it quits.
"Quits for the job, that is.
"From now on, the New York web designer will no longer be commuting five days a week to his day job at a Manhattan financial services firm. Instead, he'll be devoting himself full time to building out his blog, kottke.org, a scattered collection of writings and photos on topics ranging from web design to the politics of Girl Scout cookie sales.
"As for earning a living, Kottke has a plan for that, too. His readers will support him. At least he hopes they will. Kottke does not intend to seek advertising revenue; he plans to depend solely on reader contributions."
Joanna Glasner. Quit Your Job to Blog, Blog, Blog. Wired News. Feb. 23, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Late last year I paid a visit to Euan Semple in the BBC Digilabs, and he has graciously allowed me to interview him about the very forward-looking way in which 'Auntie' is taking the new on board and putting it to meaningful use."
broadbandblog.net. London Blogging. Feb. 24, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"When Chuck Abate joined PlantFind.com, an online company that connects buyers and sellers of landscaping and nursery goods, one of his first tasks was to raise some capital for the company. So he turned to vFinance.com.
"Mr. Abate, who had been a stockbroker for a decade, had heard from a colleague that vFinance.com could help him find financing from individual investors.
"VFinance.com started in 1997 when Timothy Mahoney and a partner bought the Web site from its original owner. Since then, the parent company, vFinance Inc., based in Boca Raton, Fla., has acquired six brokerage and investment banking firms in New York, New Jersey and Florida. It now offers a broad array of investment and other services, including drawing up business plans.
"But its calling card is vFinance.com, where entrepreneurs and small businesses can match their ideas and business plans with investors, whether venture capital firms or individual investors known as angels. The service is inexpensive -- PlantFind.com, which is based in Boynton Beach, Fla., spent about $350 to connect with individual investors who provided a total of about $500,000 -- and the process is relatively simple."
Elizabeth Olson. The Quest for Financing Can Start on the Web. The New York Times. Feb. 24, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"While I was serving as an intelligence analyst at the US Central Command in Qatar during operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom in 2003, my team and I analyzed hundreds of messages and reports each day. A vast amount of information was available to us on Intelink, but there was no simple way to find and use the data efficiently. Somebody had answers to my questions, I knew, but how were we ever to connect? The scary truth is that most of the time analysts are flying half blind.
"It doesn't have to be that way. Instead of embarking on an expensive and decades-long process of reform, the services can fix this themselves. There's no reason our nation's spy organizations can't leapfrog what the Army is already doing with Web technology and, at the same time, build upon what the public is doing with the blogosphere."
Kris Alexander. We Need Spy Blogs. Wired. March 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"IT managers who once used Linux chiefly to support Web and file-and-print servers said at last week's LinuxWorld Conference & Expo here that they're now running key applications and databases on Linux-based systems—a sign that the open-source software is penetrating deeper into corporate enterprises.
"'It's as deep as it will get for us. It's what we're betting the data center on,' said Jon Fraley, a Linux administrator at Glen Raven Inc. In December, the Glen Raven, N.C.-based textile manufacturer finished moving mission-critical Oracle databases from an aging 24-CPU Hewlett-Packard server running Unix to four-way HP servers that are based on Intel Xeon processors and run Red Hat Inc.'s Linux distribution.
"New enterprise Linux capabilities are also helping early adopters such as Yahoo Inc. venture into new terrain. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Internet hub already had 'lots' of Linux servers running Yahoo services, databases, business intelligence software and reporting applications, said Mason Ng, Yahoo's director of engineering operations."
Carol Sliwa. Linux Starts to Take a More Central IT Role. ComputerWorld. Feb. 21, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Health researchers are rewarded for hoarding data as opposed to sharing it, concluded experts on a panel on intellectual property and information access in the genetic age. The panel was part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's larger conference, which explores how scientific issues impact society, here this week.
"Alan Herbert, a geneticist at Boston University, said that the natural tendency of companies and universities is to lock up data contained in electronic medical records or banked tissue samples. The databases become a unique resource that can be curated to generate revenue, so there is a huge disincentive to release data, even though such access would improve the quality of everyone's research.
"Science is usually done in 'small groups that hold data in small silos,' said Carol Kovac, general manager of IBM Healthcare. She said that multiple experiences in IT showed the advantages of open access for the general community and for IBM in particular. She cited Linux as a culture that 'rewards people for contributing, not holding back.'"
M.L. Baker. Panel: Cultural Shift Needed to Make Health Data Valuable. eWeek. Feb. 19, 2005.
See also:
M.L. Baker. Bush's Science Advisor, Congressman Clash Over Computer Models. eWeek. Feb. 18, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Firefox is gathering steam and gaining traction, but the open-source browser is not expected to overtake Microsoft in the foreseeable future.
"The number of downloads of Firefox has topped 25 million, indicating that the open-source browser continues to make gains in the market dominated by Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer.
"Downloads of Firefox 1.0 had reached 25.24 million as of Friday, just over 100 days since its release, according to the Mozilla Foundation, developers of the browser. A preview release of Firefox 1.1 is scheduled for April."
Antone Gonsalves. Firefox Tops 25 Million-Download Mark. InformationWeek. Feb. 18, 2005.
See also:
Mozilla Foundation. Mozilla Foundation Announces 25 Million Downloads of Firefox Browsers. (Press Release.) Feb. 16, 2005.
Antone Gonsalves. IE 7 Sparks Talk Of Browser Wars. TechWebNews. Feb. 16, 2005.
Jack McCarthy. Firefox Surpasses 25 Million Downloads. InfoWorld. Feb. 22, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A key sequence in 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' requires the player to steal a police SWAT team tank, machine gun rival gang members and incinerate employees of a rival crack dealer--all acts covered by the 'Mature' rating prominently displayed on each copy of the video game.
"That rating, however, hasn't stopped countless underage players from picking up virtual Uzis in the latest GTA installment, the top-selling video game of 2004. Advocacy groups say exposure to such material makes kids more aggressive and desensitizes them to real-world violence, an argument that's winning increasing support from state and local lawmakers looking to ban the sale of such games to minors.
"The issue's become a political football, with lawmakers and advocacy groups arguing that the government must protect children if the game industry can't or won't. The debate only gets more confusing with publicity surrounding cases such as that of Devin Thompson, an Alabama teen who claims that a previous version of 'Grand Theft Auto' inspired him to kill three police officers when he was 16."
David Becker. When Games Get Gory. News.com. Feb. 22, 2005.
See also:
David Becker. Video Game Sales up 8 Percent in 2004. News.com. Jan. 18, 2005.
David Becker. How Gory is That Game?. News.com. Nov. 23, 2004.
David Becker. 'Grand Theft Auto': Keeping America Safe From Crime. News.com. Dec. 13, 2004.
David Kushner. Grand Death Auto. Salon. Feb. 22, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: Salon.com normally requires a paid subscription, but you can view articles if you register for a free day pass.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Wikipedia is a dynamic, online encyclopedia that allows users to create and edit their own entires. Volunteers then fact-check the entires to ensure accuracy. NPR's Laura Sydell reports that as Wikipedia has grown dramatically in popularity, some have begun to question its accuracy."
National Public Radio. Wikipedia's Growth Comes with Concerns. Weekend Edition. Feb. 20, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"European aircraft manufacturer Airbus plans to include in its new Superjumbo A380 planes an optional voice and data system that can allow passengers to use their mobile devices in flight, the company says.
"The service, including onboard mobile telephony and Internet access for passengers, will be offered through the OnAir joint venture to airline companies purchasing the A380. The system could be fitted on other models from Airbus as well as on planes from U.S. rival Boeing, OnAir says.
"Airbus last year successfully completed an in-flight trial of mobile phones and infrastructure equipment based on GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) technology using an Airbus A320 flight-test plane. Tested services included GSM telephony, Web browsing, e-mail, and connectivity to a VPN. The trial, announced last September, also tested several wireless computing services."
Laura Rohde. Coming Soon: Cell Phones in Flight?. PC World. Feb. 16, 2005.
See also:
John Blau. Mobile Phones Cleared for Takeoff. PC World. Sept. 26, 2004.
Bradley S. Klapper. Cell Phone Use Coming for Airbus Fliers. SeattlePI.com. Feb. 16, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Last February I was introduced to Bob Spence from the Carnegie Library in Ballinger, TX. Ballinger is a town of about 4000, smack-dab in the middle of the state. Right off, Spence told me he'd been 'cramming to learn the how-tos' ever since he'd started in his new role as library director, only six months before.
"In subsequent months, Spence shared his goal to have Ballinger's library become "the most practical public library in West Texas." He asked for advice on involving his library board, cataloging relevant web sites, and, in true Texas form, his struggle with 'wearing so many hats.'
"Since the onslaught of Internet services, all librarians have been struggling to incorporate new types of information, formats, and skills into our work, for both ourselves and our patrons. We exercise our professional skills, judgments, expertise, and even "share" an awful lot online, but perhaps we've missed an important point in all the technology hubbub—one that's fundamental to our ethics and practice in librarianship: we must be present and connected with our patrons and each other. What if we were all 'here, listening and learning,' like Bob Spence, in our online community?"
Chrystie R. Hil. Everything I Need To Know I Learned Online. Library Journal. Feb. 15, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The Defense Department's Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program (CAP), developed to help federal employees with disabilities use computers, has added wounded troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to its portfolio so that they can use e-mail.
"CAP Director Dinah Cohen, speaking here at the annual Healthcare and Management Information Systems Society (HIMSS) conference, said the fit between CAP and the mostly young, wounded troops is a natural fit 'because these are kids who have grown up in a computer environment.'
"When the troops are evacuated to a stateside hospital, Cohen said, they often want to communicate with family, friends and military colleagues via e-mail."
Bob Brewin. Wounded Vets Get E-Mail Aid. FCW. Feb. 18, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Social networking is out and straight invitations are in at Google's free e-mail service, but the official line is that the shift does not signal an end to Gmail's beta status.
"Google is giving more people the chance to sign up for Gmail, but the search giant insists the move does not signify an impending full-scale launch of the free e-mail service, which has been in beta since it launched on April 1 last year.
"To date, Google has been relying on social networking to roll out Gmail, initially inviting some 2,000 people, who were then able to invite a limited number of others themselves. This week though, Google started sending invitations directly to those who have signed up to be kept abreast of updates to the service."
Matt Loney. Gmail Moves to Next Stage. News.com. Feb. 18, 2005.
See also:
Robert Lemos. Gmail Glitch Yields Access to Messages. News.com. Jan. 12, 2005.
Paul Festa. Google to Offer Gigabyte of Free E-mail. News.com. April 1, 2004.
Editor's note: See also SNTReport's prior story on Google's beta cycle.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"When it comes to Microsoft Office documents, there is often a lot more in them than meets the eye. Most people don't realize that when two or more people collaborate on a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document, hidden information--such as deleted text, names of authors, and revision marks--are sometimes unintentionally left in final drafts.
"A company called Workshare Technology now offers a free safety net from the potential embarrassment of a public display of these hidden and forgotten comments and changes. The company's Trace application sends out an alert if hidden information, also known as metadata, is embedded in a Microsoft Office file. When hidden data is identified, a dialogue box pops up from your system tray alerting you. Clicking on the alert message generates a report of all the hidden data inside the file.
"Workshare Trace, announced early this month, is available for download now."
Tom Spring. Free Tool Identifies Hidden Data in Office Docs. PC World. Feb. 14, 2005.
See also:
Workshare. TRACE! Beta by Workshare. (Press Release.) Feb. 7, 2005.
Workshare. Workshare Launches Workshare Professional Release 4. (Press Release.) Feb. 7, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"IBM is spending $100 million over the next three years beefing up its commitment to Linux software.
"The cash injection will be used to help its customers use Linux on every type of device from handheld computers and phones right up to powerful servers.
"IBM said the money will fund a variety of technical, research and marketing initiatives to boost Linux use."
No author. IBM Puts Cash Behind Linux Push. BBC News. Feb. 18, 2005.
See also:
Jennifer LeClaire. IBM To Invest $100 Million in Linux Support, Technology. TechNewsWorld. Feb. 17, 2005.
Dennis Callaghan. IBM Pledges $100 Million to Workplace on Linux. eWeek. Feb. 17, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Enterprise data architects at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this week said they are piecing together an online portal that can navigate 99 disparate systems observing more than 500 environmental parameters.
"The NOAA Observing System Architecture, or NOSA, provides:
Susan M. Menke. NOAA Links its Architecture Online. GCN.com. Feb. 18, 2005.
See also:
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA Web Site Provides Huge Inventory of Earth Observing Systems. (Press Release.) Feb. 14, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"During the early days of Internet advertising, skeptics often argued that Web ads would never sell prosaic packaged goods effectively.
"As more Americans become comfortable with the Web, though, major marketers are increasingly asking agencies to produce elaborate, interactive online campaigns - even for grocery store goods that hardly anyone researches or buys online.
"One of the shiniest lures online is the developing field of viral advertising, in which companies try to create messages so compelling, funny or suggestive that consumers spontaneously share them with friends, often through e-mail or cellphone text messages. The goal is the exponential spread of ads that are endorsed by consumers' own friends."
Natives. Interactive Viral Campaigns Ask Consumers to Spread the Word. The New York Times. Feb. 18, 2005.
(Editor's Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper's fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Over the past eight months, bloggers have covered two political conventions; claimed credit for forcing the resignations of two prominent journalists (soon-to-be former CBS news anchor Dan Rather, ex-CNN news chief Eason Jordan); outed a conservative faker with a taste for gay porn credentialed to cover the White House; and risen from relative obscurity to media darling. They've done this while attracting impressive levels of web traffic (and advertising dollars) and conjuring up a cottage industry and community devoted largely to, well, themselves.
"Now, with two reporters from established news organizations facing jail time for defying an order to divulge confidential sources to a federal grand jury, bloggers are clamoring for the same legal protection that journalists are accorded under the First Amendment.
"But they won't get it. Besides, even if they did, it wouldn't be of much use."
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
Adam L. Penenberg. No Protection for Bloggers. Wired News. Feb. 17, 2005.
"Several leading mobile technology players are cooperating on a project to explore Linux's potential as the major software component in smart phones of the future.
"At the 3GSM World Congress taking place here this week, Infineon Technologies, Samsung and embedded-Linux specialist Trolltech said they have created a 3G, or third-generation, smart phone built around the Linux operating system.
"The prototype uses Linux software from MontaVista Software, a company that creates versions of the open-source operating system that can be embedded into special-purpose computing devices such as telecommunications equipment. The prototype features services such as video calling and streaming, Web browsing, stereo speakers and Java-based 3D gaming."
Andrew Donoghue. 3G Linux Phone Allows Video Calling, Web Browsing. News.com. Feb. 15, 2005.
See also:
CNET News.com Staff. Cell Phones Sound Off with New Skills. News.com. Feb. 16, 2005.
Stephen Shankland. MontaVista Aims to Simplify Cell Phone Linux. News.com. Feb. 7, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Late in the summer of 1973, two young scientists in the nascent field of computer networks hunkered down in a conference room of the Cabana Hyatt Hotel in Palo Alto, Calif., a clean but bland stopping place for salesmen and the parents of students at nearby Stanford University. Their goal was to thrash out a way to make different, isolated computer networks talk to each other.
"They wrote, they sketched, they argued, all the while passing a yellow legal pad back and forth to capture ideas as they crystallized.
"When they emerged two days later, they knew they had the makings of a solid technical paper. What they did not know was that they had created the essential underpinnings of today's vast and sprawling Internet.
"For the work that began on that yellow pad, the Association for Computing Machinery plans to announce Wednesday that Vinton G. Cerf and Robert E. Kahn will receive the 2004 A. M. Turing Award, widely considered to be the computing field's equivalent of the Nobel Prize."
Katie Hafner. Laurels for Giving the Internet Its Language. News.com. Feb. 15, 2005.
See also:
Association for Computing Machinery. Internet Pioneers Cerf and Kahn to Receive ACM Turing Award. (Press Release.) Feb. 16, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"With a covetous eye on the success of portable music players, mobile phone makers are going after would-be iPod buyers by building high-quality players into their handsets.
"Sony Ericsson announced Monday it would soon market music-player mobiles under its parent's Walkman brand, drawing on the music catalogue of a sister company, Sony BMG, the world's No. 2 record company.
"And Nokia Corp., the world's leading phone maker, announced an alliance with Microsoft Corp. to allow mobile subscribers to load music from a PC onto their phones - much the way that a digital music player works."
Laurence Frost. Mobile Phone Industry Eyes Music Downloads. WashingtonPost.com. Feb. 14, 2005.
See also:
Chris Marlowe. Ring-a-Ding Ding for Mobile Music. Reuters. Feb. 15, 2005.
Sony Ericsson. Sony Ericsson to Offer Exciting Mobile Music Solution in Collaboration with Sony Group Companies. (Press Release.) Feb. 14, 2005.
Nokia. Microsoft and Nokia Collaborate to Help Ensure Consumers Can Enjoy Digital Music Anywhere. (Press Release.) Feb. 14, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Microsoft announced a partnership Sunday with phone maker Flextronics to market a new cell phone platform running Windows Mobile to phone makers and service providers.
"The two companies said they have jointly developed a new phone platform called Peabody--a blueprint that cell providers can customize and which is designed to cut production costs.
"Peabody runs on GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) networks, which is the world's most widespread wireless standard, and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), the data delivery arm of GSM networks."
Steven Musil. Microsoft, Flextronics Partner on Cell Platform. News.com. Feb. 13, 2005.
See also:
Associated Press. Microsoft, Flextronics in Smartphone Venture. MSNBC News. Feb. 14, 2005.
Microsoft Corp. Flextronics and Microsoft Announce Windows Mobile-Based ODM Phone Platform for OEMs. (Press Release.) Feb. 14, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Late Friday night, conservative web bloggers helped force the resignation of top CNN news executive Eason Jordan over remarks he made at the World Economic Conference in Davos. This, and other recent developments, have experts questioning the impact of Internet bloggers on mainstream journalism."
Jim Lehrer. Bloggers and Journalists. Online News Hour. Feb. 14, 2005.
See also:
Katherine Q. Seelye. Bloggers as News Media Trophy Hunters. News.com. Feb. 13, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Online Social Networks 2005, going on now through February 23rd, is a summit for all those interested in working with social networking processes, tools, and media. In addition to attending many workshops, panels, and presentations by leading experts and practitioners, attendees will have the opportunity to be part of a community with a significant role in defining the future direction of online social networking.
"During the OSN2005 summit a manifesto will be created and published describing what is wanted and needed from online social networking tools.
"Attendees will be invited to participate in a series of focus groups to provide feedback on current OSN technology and articulate specific suggestions for future features and developments. A series of White papers based on these focus groups will be shared with venture investors who want to know where to place their bets in this industry."
Online Conference. Online Social Networks 2005. Feb. 9-23, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Industry Advisory Council members recognized five federal agency programs, from e-learning to registering food imports, for demonstrating best practices in federal e-government implementations.
"Judges selected the programs from 25 finalists that showed an impact on an agency's ability to fulfill its missions and satisfy stakeholders, participants and users.
"David Wennergren, the Navy's chief information officer and one of the program coordinators, said the winners were programs that helped an agency's ability to deliver its mission. 'It's about change,' he said."
Judi Hasson. IAC Selects Excellence.gov Winners. FCW.com. Feb. 10, 2005.
See also:
American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council. 2005 Excellence.Gov Awards. Feb. 9, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"This scenario is all too familiar to office workers who collaborate electronically on projects: E-mails get passed around with differing versions of documents-in-progress attached. Instant messages whizz by. Web sites are cited, then lost. It's often a jumbled mess, with no central online location for shared data. There must be a better way.
"A new crop of tools aims to help turn the Web - be it on the public Internet or a company network - into much more than a collection of documents one visits like a museum: Look, but don't touch.
"'We're turning the Web into a conversation,' said Glenn Reid, chief executive and founder of Five Across Inc.
"Reid's startup and several other companies will offer their visions for accomplishing that on stage at the DEMO conference in Arizona, an annual showcase of tech innovation."
Associated Press. New Tools Making Online Work Easier. MarketWatch.com. Feb. 13, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"City officials in Los Angeles are considering switching to an open-source platform for their computer systems to potentially save millions of dollars that could be redirected to other services.
"Three council members — Eric Garcetti, Wendy Greul and Jack Weiss — introduced a motion last week asking the city's Information Technology Agency to provide an initial report on potential savings in 30 days and a transition plan in 90 days. Although city officials already use some open-source software, they spent $5.8 million on proprietary software licenses for the fiscal year that ran from July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2004.
"With open-source programs, users can read, modify and redistribute the source code for free. The most widely known example is the Linux operating system, although some vendors charge for their Linux distributions."
Dibya Sarkar. L.A. Investigates Open Source to Cut Costs. FCW.com. Feb. 7, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A collaboration tool launched on Monday is designed to ease the distribution of large files for enterprises.
"Ignite Technologies Inc. of Dallas introduced its Ignite Communicator service, which aims to deliver any type of digital content such as video, graphical presentations and software to users regardless of their networking or computer capacity.
"Ignite Communicator, for example, could help an enterprise reach mobile users connecting over less reliable networks or to partners or customers with varying levels of access, Ignite officials said."
Matt Hicks. Service Aims to Ease Digital Content Delivery. eWeek. Feb. 7, 2005.
See also:
Jason Meserve. Ignite Helps Deliver Big Files. NetworkWorldFusion. Feb. 7, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Compare our e-mail system today with the British General Post Office in 1839, and ours wins. Compare it with the British postal system in 1840, however, and ours loses.
"In that year, the British introduced the Penny Black, the first postage stamp. It simplified postage - yes, to a penny - and shifted the cost from the recipient to the sender, who had to prepay. We look back with wonder that it could have ever been otherwise. Recipient pays? Why should the person who had not initiated the transaction be forced to pay for a message with unseen contents? What a perverse system.
"Today, however, we meekly assume that the recipient of e-mail must bear the costs. It is nominally free, of course, but it arrives in polluted form. Cleaning out the stuff once it reaches our in-box, or our Internet service provider's, is irritating beyond words, costly even without per-message postage.
"Even the best filters address the problem too late, after this sludge has been discharged without cost to the polluter. In my case, desperation has driven me to send all my messages sequentially through three separate filter systems. Then I must remember to check the three junk folders to see what failed to get through that should have. Recipient pays."
Randall Stross. How to Stop Junk E-Mail: Charge for the Stamp. The New York Times. Feb. 13, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Wiki Media Foundation, the group behind the Wikipedia online encyclopedia project, said Friday that search giant Google has volunteered to host some of its content on company servers.
"In a notice posted to the nonprofit organization's Web site, the group, also known as Wikimedia, said its board of directors is currently considering the terms of Google's offer and plans to meet with the search company sometime in March.
"The group was quick to point out that any relationship established with Google would not require it to begin advertising on its Web site."
Matt Hines. Google May Host Encyclopedia Project. News.com. Feb. 11, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Massively multiplayer roleplaying games - or MMORPGs - have been around for a while now, but recent releases have demonstrated that they are making the crucial transition from a niche to a mass-market audience.
"In late 2004 when World of Warcraft was released in North America it broke a number of records for the genre - including first day sales and concurrent users. Now it is Europe's turn to experience Azeroth on developer Blizzard's new set of region-dedicated servers.
"Most games of this type tend to require a great deal of attention and dedication to play, but in this case it is possible to enjoy the game in relatively short bursts - perfect for the more casual gamer."
Phil Elliott. Warcraft Sets Gaming Standards. BBC News. Feb. 11, 2004.
David Adams. World of Warcraft Interview. PC Games. Feb. 8, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The notion of collaborating to create open source applications for higher education is rapidly gaining momentum. From course management systems to ERP financial systems, higher education institutions are working together to explore whether they can in fact build a better mousetrap. As Lois Brooks, of Stanford University, recently observed, the open source movement is as much about building communities as it is about developing and sharing applications.
"As higher education creates open source communities for shared resources, it's important to know what kind of community we are creating and some of the principles underlying that community. Fundamental differences in approaches, philosophies, and incentives for various stakeholders exist. Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in the legal area of licensing.
"Licensing in the open source world is not about giving up ownership of software or content. In almost all cases, the authors or communities maintain copyright of their work. However, through licensing, open source authors and communities can allow others to use the software or content more freely than would generally be allowed under copyright law. Broadly speaking, there are two approaches for open source licenses: (1) the General Public Licenses (GPLs), known as the 'copyleft' approach, and (2) a set of approaches that together are sometimes referred to as 'open/open.'"
Paul B. Gandel and Brad Wheeler. Of Birkenstocks and Wingtips: Open Source Licenses. Educause Review. Jan./Feb. 2005.
SNTReport.com™ CoveringEV the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"You may, in the course of reading this article, spot a factual error that made it to press. A certain bit of grammar may makes you bristle, or you may think the writing is biased. But by now the ink has dried; all you can do is send an e-mail message or a letter of complaint.
"If this article had been published on Wikinews, a Web site begun recently, there would be something more you could do: change it, fix it, expand it or delete it.
"Wikinews (www.wikinews.org) is an experiment in collaborative news gathering and reporting, and the latest in a collection of Wikis (pronounced WIK-eez or WEEK-eez) under the umbrella of Wikimedia, which cultivates free and open information resources written by its users."
Aaron Weiss. The Unassociated Press. The New York Times. Feb. 10, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Web services are poised to revolutionize the way content sites get their goods to the folks who want them.
"Joshua Tauberer is trying to render obsolete Web surfing to track congressional bills. People usually have to check out dozens of Web addresses, like the U.S. Congress site, OpenSecrets.org, and political blogs, to find out if special interests are putting money into the campaign coffers of a bill's sponsor, read what bloggers are saying about the bill, and find out if there's any related legislation.
"But last year Tauberer, a graduate linguistics student at the University of Pennsylvania, built GovTrack.us to automatically retrieve the latest news and blog entries related to federal legislation from hundreds of sites. Copyright law is one topic he's particularly interested in, and he wants to help others take advantage of all the information about it floating in cyberspace. He's doing so via a series of related software and Internet technologies people commonly call Web services."
Olga Kharif. All Your Info in One Place. BusinessWeek Online. Feb. 8, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Erik Benson, 28, is a man with plans -- 28 plans. He's posted these aspirations for the whole Web to see at '43 Things,' a site he and some friends launched at the beginning of 2005. The purpose of the site: Anyone can post their goals, resolutions and grand designs, and meet others who share the same ambitions.
"There are currently 119 other people on 43things.com decreeing their pledge to do a start-up that makes it past that two-year threshold.
"But what's intriguing about 43 things isn't the voyeuristic itch it scratches, as we get to see so many people baring their heart's desire. What makes the site work is how it connects all these people to each other. By a simple software tweak known as tagging, this site and many others, like the photo site Flickr and the bookmark-sharing system del.icio.us, have found a new way to organize information and connect people. The surprise is that the organizing itself is unorganized -- and yet it works."
Katharine Mieszkowski. Steal This Bookmark!. Salon. Feb. 8, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: Salon.com normally requires a paid subscription, but you can view articles if you register for a free day pass.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"An Apple lawsuit against the operators of fan websites stirs debate on whether bloggers can claim legal protections.
"Even in a country where most citizens probably have no idea what a blog is, it's not just an academic debate. Bloggers, some observers say, are becoming major players in everything from national politics to consumer trends. As a result, "their conflicts, motives, and agendas matter enormously," says Zephyr Teachout, who served as Internet director for the Howard Dean campaign.
"Now in California, a court will soon decide whether bloggers have the same legal protections as journalists under 'shield' laws that protect reporters from revealing their sources."
Randy Dotinga. Are Bloggers Journalists? Do They Deserve Press Protections?. Christian Science Monitor. Feb. 2, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The FBI has shut down an e-mail system it uses to communicate with the public as it investigates a potential security breach, according to multiple media reports Friday.
"Citing FBI officials, The Associated Press reported that the e-mail system is run by a private company and is used for sharing non-sensitive information with the public.
"CBS News also reported that the accounts use the fbi.com domain name and that the FBI bought at least a portion of the affected accounts from AT&T.;"
Matt Hicks. Reports: FBI Shutters Public E-Mail System. eWeek. Feb. 4, 2005.
See also:
FBI National Press Office. Statement of the FBI Regarding fbi.gov E-Mail Accounts. Feb. 4, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Sun Microsystems is a company that's made good use of its visionary impulses to survive against bigger rivals. So it's fitting that Jonathan Schwartz is the company's No. 2 executive.
"Schwartz has a reputation as an ideas man, but now he's got to turn those ideas into reality. For Sun, which is still working to reverse a three-year revenue slide, that suggests a period of intense change.
"Schwartz has climbed Sun's ranks since the company acquired his start-up, Lighthouse Design, in 1996. On the same day in April 2004 that Sun announced a detente with Microsoft, along with its third major round of layoffs in three years, he was promoted to president and chief operating officer.
"Since then, Schwartz has pinned much of Sun's turnaround plan on software. So it is that the company's salespeople are no longer compensated simply for selling hardware. Meanwhile, the Solaris operating system is becoming open-source software, and adding a Sun database has become a real possibility."
Stephen Shankland. Sun's Open-Source Gamble. News.com. Feb. 7, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Interior Department officials have chosen ESRI to update Geodata.gov, an online tool that combines thousands of geospatial resources from federal, state, local, tribal and private sources.
"The Web portal is part of Geospatial One-Stop, one of the federal government's 24 original e-government initiatives.
"The site allows government officials at all levels to get quick access to maps and other data that can be used to aid in making on-the-spot emergency response decisions, for example."
Michael Hardy. ESRI Wins Geospatial Work. FCW.com. Feb. 1, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"So many blogs, so little time--and now, so many entrepreneurs hoping to help you sort through them.
"As the number of blogs, news services and other syndicated sources of online information balloons, a new crop of start-ups has emerged promising to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. And venture capitalists and veteran Internet investors Marc Andreessen and Ron Conway are right behind one of them.
"Rojo, a San Francisco start-up in the blog aggregation business, 'is wrapping a communications capability around content consumption,' said Andreessen, Web browser pioneer, Rojo investor and Opsware chairman. 'And the killer app for the Internet is and always has been communication.'"
Paul Festa. RSS Feeds Attract Venture Dollars. ZD Net. Feb. 1, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Nick Denton's Gawker Media signed Sony as the sole sponsor of a new blog covering software for the non-geek. Called Lifehacker, the site will offer 'a more briskly efficient approach to using computers and downloading software,' according to Denton.
"Sony's buy with Gawker Media marks the company's first blog marketing foray. Denton described the deal, with Sony's eSolutions group, as the second or third largest it's signed with an advertiser and the largest with a consumer electronics company. In addition to owning all ad space on the new site, Sony will buy media on Gawker's Gizmodo gadget blog.
"'They [Sony] were very interested in doing something before blogging became a common marketing platform,' said Brad Bowers, founding partner of BlackInc. 'Given that Gawker is a pretty well established media property as far as blogging goes, they thought it would be a good place to dip their toe in the water.'"
Zachary Rodgers. Denton Snags Sony as Exclusive Blog Sponsor. ClickZNews. Jan. 31, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Interest in telework continues to run high for federal employees, but just 51 percent of workers are eligible to work away from the office, according to a report from a Herndon, Va.-based technology distributor.
"The report found that 36 percent of the federal workforce has been given the option to work away from the office and 45 percent of workers say their managers view telework favorably. Nineteen percent telework, the report stated.
"'The benefits of telework are simply too great to delay any longer,' said Jim Shanks, CDW Government president. 'With a clear understanding of what the real problems are, federal policymakers and industry leaders now have a real opportunity to resolve them.'"
Daniel Pulliam. Telework Participation Still Lags Behind Interest. GovExec. Jan. 31, 2005.
See also:
Jason Miller. CIOs Need to Get Behind Telework, GSA says. GCN. Jan. 31, 2005.
CDW Government Inc. CDW·G Federal Telework Report Reveals Roadblocks To Broader Telework Adoption. (Press Release.) Jan. 31, 2005.
Update: Daniel Pulliam. Telework Centers Offer Free Month to Federal Workers. GCN. Feb. 11, 2005. (The General Service Administration is funding a promotion for federal workers to receive a one-month trial membership at fourteer Washington-area telework centers.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Activists at a leftist gathering where Microsoft is viewed as a corporate bogeyman urged developing nations Saturday to leap into the information age with free open-source software.
"John Barlow, a lyricist for the Grateful Dead, told a gathering inside a packed warehouse that poor nations can't solve their problems unless they stop paying expensive software licensing fees.
"'Already, Brazil spends more in licensing fees on proprietary software than it spends on hunger,' said Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a cyberspace civil liberties group."
Associated Press. Activists Urge Open-Source. Wired News. Jan. 29, 2005.
See also:
National Public Radio. Brazil Makes Move to Open Source Software. Morning Edition. Jan. 31, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Microsoft and copy-protection company Macrovision have struck a deall that will add a new layer of anticopying defenses to video content being swapped between home devices.
"The two companies said that Microsoft had licensed Macrovision's technology, which aims to stop people from making copies using analog connections between devices, such as those that typically link a set-top box to a television.
"The deal could make it harder for consumers to make permanent copies of TV shows and movies without permission, if they use computers running the Windows operating system. It should also help convince movie studios and other content producers to release their products in new ways online, the companies said."
John Borland. Microsoft, Macrovision Align on Copy Protection. News.com. Jan. 31, 2005.
See also:
Todd Bishop. Microsoft Makes Deal with Macrovision. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Feb. 1, 2005.
Tony Smith. MS Licenses Analog Anti-Rip Technology. The Register. Feb. 1, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"For Rob Davis, the final straw came during a beautiful weekend last summer, which he spent holed up in his Minneapolis apartment killing a zombie. The week before, a malicious software program had invaded Davis' PC through his browser, Internet Explorer, using a technique called the DSO exploit. His computer had been repurposed as a "zombie box" - its CPU and bandwidth co-opted to pump reams of spam onto the Internet. Furious, Davis dropped out of a planned Lake Superior camping trip to instead back up his computer and reformat his crippled hard drive. Then he vowed never to open IE again.
"Lucky for Davis, a new browser had just appeared on the scene - Firefox, a fast, simple, and secure piece of software that was winning acclaim from others who also had grown frustrated with Internet Explorer.
"Firefox couldn't have arrived at a better time for people like Davis - or at a worse time for Microsoft. Ever since Internet Explorer toppled Netscape in 1998, browser innovation has been more or less limited to pop-up ads, spyware, and viruses.
"Like most open source software, Firefox is forever a work in progress, the product of continual tweaking by thousands of programmers all over the world. What makes Firefox different from other open source projects is its consumer appeal. Until now, the open source community has been very good at creating useful software but lousy at finding nontechnical users.
Josh McHugh. The Firefox Explosion. Wired. Feb. 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A group of file-sharing activists is practicing a little civil disobedience of its own in order to bring the documentary series Eyes on the Prize to a wider audience.
"As Wired News first reported, Eyes on the Prize, the 14-part series chronicling the civil rights movement, can no longer be broadcast on television and has never been released on DVD because of copyright restrictions.
"Old VHS tapes that remain in schools and libraries were the only way to view the landmark series, until now. Downhill Battle enlisted the help of a group called Common Sense Releasers to digitize the series and convert it to MPEG-4 format for distribution on the internet. The group hopes people will organize community screenings of the series around the country."
Katie Dean. Eyes on the Prize Hits P2P. Wired News. Jan. 27, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"On February 13, thousands of musicians from around the world will gather in Los Angeles at the Grammy Awards to celebrate music circa 2005.
"But the celebration won't hide the war that's going on. Record labels are threatened by technologies that give fans access to music in ways no one ever planned. They plead with Congress for more laws to control the fans.
"Activist organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge (on whose boards this columnist sits) are fighting back. They (we) demand an end to the war, and the attack on innovation that it represents."
Lawrence Lessig. Why Wilco Is the Future of Music. Wired. Feb. 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"On a recent day, the cyberdesign world was buzzing. Bloggers at apartmenttherapy.com had discovered the mystery manufacturer of a hot paint color called Fresh Melon Green. Over at treehugger.com, bamboo coffins were the talk of the moment. A post at Design Sponge, meanwhile, praised ceramic bowls that double as wall sconces.
"Now that blogs, or Web journals, influence just about everything from politics to technology news, they are starting to transform the once clubby design community. On design blogs, readers who are normally not privy to chatter among interior decorators and tastemakers can participate in debates on burning topics (sample: Is the designer Karim Rashid overrated?); get advance word on design trends, like erotic stained glass; and find answers to practical issues, such as how to quiet an obnoxiously loud apartment buzzer. These tips and tidbits are sometimes dispensed by bloggers who support themselves with day jobs within the design industry."
Lockhart Steele. Hot Off the Web: Gossip and Design Guidance. The New York Times. Jan. 27, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"If you've got an understanding of free and open source software licensing, project management skills and experience with Sourceforge.net, Google may be looking for you.
"The search engine giant has posted a position on the popular Craigslist site for an open source program manager. The posting comes in the same week that Google hired Mozilla Firefox lead engineer Ben Goodger and Mozilla contributor Darin Fischer.
"The job posting may be indicative of a further advance into the open source community as it adds staff to its open source roster."
Sean Michael Kerner. Looking For Open Source Work? So is Google.. InternetNews.com. Jan. 27, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Fifteen months ago, Friendster enjoyed the kind of enviable status that Silicon Valley start-ups dream of: A-list investors and millions of users flocking to its Web site to browse profiles posted by friends and friends' friends, in search of dates or playmates. The firm even helped define a hot new facet of the Internet dubbed "social networking."
"But the current buzz exists because the company, which endured three chief executives during 2004, has seen a spate of senior executives depart in recent weeks. Just as troubling, a younger, flashier rival called MySpace has eclipsed Friendster, at least in the United States, among those in the most highly coveted 18 to 29 demographic. And Friendster loyalists have groused that the company has done almost nothing to enliven its site."
Gary Rivlin. Friendster, Love and Money. The New York Times. Jan. 24, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Snapple will launch a redesigned Web site on Monday to complement its latest offline ad campaign.
"The site, developed by New York-based Chopping Block, will tie in with Snapple's 'Return the Favor' campaign, which launched this week on TV and radio, and will continue this summer with an under-the-cap promotion and event marketing.
"The Web site is being used as the destination hub to which other media will lead. Snapple will use viral and social networking elements to build a community, said Richard Alvarez, advertising manager with Snapple parent Cadbury Schweppes."
Kevin Newcomb. Snapple TV Campaign Points to the Web. ClickZNews. Jan. 21, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Dell CEO Kevin Rollins is just now starting to step out of Michael Dell's shadow and into the limelight.
"It has been six months since Rollins took the reins at the PC giant after its namesake founder stepped aside as chief executive. In that short span, IBM has more or less bowed out of the PC business ('waving the white flag,' Rollins said), Hewlett-Packard has realigned its PC business, and Apple Computer has reignited public attention with budget-minded Macs and iPods.
"We caught up with Rollins last week and asked about his views on everything from the Chinese technology market to Apple and the iPod to the Republican Party."
Andy McCue. Dell's Rollins: Unfazed by iPod, IBM. News.com. Jan. 18, 2005.
See also:
CNET Staff. Dell Chief Unperturbed by iPod, Mac Mini. News.com. Jan. 18, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"An ambitious proposal to make the results of federally funded medical research available to the public quickly and for free has been scaled back by the National Institutes of Health under pressure from scientific publishers, who argued that the plan would eat into their profits and harm the scientific enterprise they support.
"The initial plan, encouraged by Congress and hailed by patient advocacy groups, called for the results of NIH-funded research to be posted on a publicly accessible Web site within six months after they are published in a scientific journal. Most research results now are available only by subscription to the journal -- at a cost that often reaches into the thousands of dollars -- or on a pay-per-article basis that can cost $100 or more for two or three articles.
"In the final version of the plan, however, the recommended six-month deadline for posting results has been stretched to a year. That change has angered many advocates of public access, who have argued it isn't fair that taxpayers must either wait or ante up to see the results of research they have already paid for."
Rick Weiss. NIH Revises Plan for Quick, Free Access to Study Results. WashingtonPost.com. Jan. 18, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Yahoo and Verizon Communications on Monday inked a multi-year agreement to package the Web portal into the nation's largest phone company's broadband Internet services.
"The deal represents a competitive win for Yahoo because it replaces Microsoft's MSN as the default Web portal for new Verizon customers. MSN and Verizon struck their original agreement in June 2002, but the combined service was slow to get off the ground.
"Verizon will package a Yahoo-branded Web browser and default home page to its broadband users. The deal spans beyond Verizon's DSL (digital subscriber line) service and into its upcoming fiber-to-the-home offering called Fios. In a bid against its cable rivals, Verizon is spending billions of dollars stretching fiber, which is significantly faster than DSL, into customers' homes. The phone giants plans to sell video programming through its fiber lines on top of speedier Internet access."
Jim Hu. Yahoo, Verizon Ink Web Tie-In. News.com. Jan. 17, 2005.
See also:
Matthew Fordahl. Verizon Teams up with Yahoo for Content. USA Today. Jan. 17, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"These days, nearly everyone has a digital camera or camera phone. And many new online services offer varying features for people who want to share their pictures, post them to blogs, or tag or comment on others' photos.
"Here's a roundup of four of the best of these services."
Daniel Terdiman. Photo Sites Share and Share Alike. Wired News. Jan. 17, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Few dispute the need to move America's costly, fragmented health system from paper records and prescriptions into the computer age. Converting to digital records, health authorities agree, would reduce medical errors and improve efficiency, saving both lives and dollars.
"But what has been missing is a national road map that would encourage doctors, hospitals and insurers to invest in modern information technology.
"On Tuesday, a group of 13 health and information technology organizations gave the Bush administration its recommendations for just such a road map for a national health information network."
Steve Lohr. Prescription for Digitized Health Records. News.com. Jan. 19, 2005.
See also:
Leading Health Care and Information Technology Groups Endorse Common Framework for Health Information Exchange to Support Improvements in Health and Healthcare. (Press Release.) Jan. 18, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A new version of Picasa, Google Inc.'s digital photo software, is due for release today, offering additional ways to edit, print and share pictures. It also has a feature that Web surfers have come to expect from Google: It's free.
"Google acquired the company behind Picasa in July and immediately slashed the price of its software from $30 to nothing. When Picasa co-founder Lars Perkins asked Google executives how the software would make money, he recalled, they told him, 'Don't worry about it.'
"In fact, Google has eliminated or slashed the price of every service it has acquired, including Web log software Blogger and online mapping program Keyhole. And many of the services its own engineers created feature no ads or subscriptions; these include social-networking software, a program for conducting queries through text messaging on cellphones, and services for searching through computer hard drives, scholarly material and university websites."
Chris Gaither. Free-for-All Could Pay Off for Google. LA Times. Jan. 18, 2005.
See also:
Matt Hicks. Google Updates Picasa Photo Software. eWeek. Jan. 18, 2005.
Reuters. Google Touches up Photo Service. News.com. Jan. 18, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A motor scooter in Manchester, an apartment in Amsterdam, a poster in Paris. All are available via Craigslist, an online bulletin board that presents a new challenge to the established players in the estimated $100 billion global market for classified advertising.
"Craigslist was started 10 years ago by Craig Newmark, an Internet pioneer in San Francisco, as a way of keeping friends up to date on events in the Bay Area. It spread through the United States before going international in 2003, with sites in London and Toronto. The expansion accelerated in late 2004 with a flurry of sites, including ones for Paris, Berlin, Tokyo and Sydney. About a dozen other international start-ups are planned in the next few months.
"Craigslist, which bills itself as a community-based operation in the techno-utopian spirit of the early Internet, accepts advertising for just about anything, from jobs to apartments to electronics to 'erotic services.' What it generally will not accept is money. The sites let users post most classified advertisements free. Only job ads posted in three United States cities require a fee."
Eric Pfanner. Craigslist Circles the Globe With Online Classifieds, One City at a Time. The New York Times. Jan. 17, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Weblogs can take many different forms, any of which might be appropriate for enterprise blogging. They may be a one-way form of communication, where users simply read the 'posts' of the blog owners.
"Alternatively, blogs can be a two-way medium of communication (between
owners and their readers) or they can be the basis of a community in which all readers of the blog can contribute on an equal footing. Each of these options has its place.
"There is very little research related to enterprise blogging; the commercial applications of blogging are mostly unproven as yet. There are, on the other hand, many articles and papers written by enthusiasts or early adopters. While this literature contains many useful ideas, there is little evaluative material, so though we know that enterprises have used blogs for various purposes, we don't
necessarily know whether or not those blogs achieved the purposes for which they were created."
Laurel A. Clyde. Enterprise Blogging. FreePint. Jan. 13, 2005.
Attribution: SNTReport.com first discovered news of Enterprise Blogging through a posting in Library Stuff, edited by Steven M. Cohen.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A company called Streamload is offering consumers a free 10 gigabyte online storage locker for multimedia files, potentially raising the stakes for larger companies such as Yahoo and America Online.
"Streamload typically provides online storage space for a price, making it one of the few companies to survive in that business through the dot-com shakeout. However, it is increasingly competing with larger companies that offer online homes for digital photographs, and even the huge archive space provided by Google's Gmail service.
"Company executives say the offer of big online storage lockers, once used only by advanced computer users, is now more relevant to a broader public that has large collections of digital photographs and MP3 files."
John Borland. Company Offers 10GB of Net Storage, for Free. News.com. Jan. 14, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A new FBI computer program designed to help agents share information to ward off terrorist attacks may have to be scrapped, the agency has concluded, forcing a further delay in a four-year, half-billion-dollar overhaul of its antiquated computer system.
"The bureau is so convinced that the software, known as Virtual Case File, will not work as planned that it has taken steps to begin soliciting proposals from outside contractors for new software, officials said.
"'Because the software program is large and complex, we are modularizing VCF capabilities and then testing them, deploying them to subset user groups, evaluating performance and then building upon them,' said an FBI official whom the agency would not allow to be identified."
Richard B. Schmitt. New FBI Software May Be Unusable. LATimes.com. Jan. 13, 2005.
See also:
Reuters. Report: FBI May Scrap New Computer Program. News.com. Jan. 13, 2005.
David Perera. Virtual Case File a Virtual Bust. FCW. Jan. 14, 2005.
Jonathan Krim. FBI Rejects Its New Case File Software. WashingtonPost.com. Jan. 14, 2005.
Toni Locy. FBI Expects to Dump Information-Sharing Software. USA Today. Jan. 13, 2005.
Wilson P. Dizard III. Draft Report Suggests End for FBI’s Case Management App. GCN.com. Jan. 10, 2005.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
The latest isssue , the newsletter of the Information Technology Division of the Special Libraries Association features an article on Corporate library blogging.
An overview of points are provided to consider when starting a corporate library weblog.
"Does your library need one? And, if so, what type of content is your library going to be placing on the blog?
"What sense is there to having a blog, especially those that are for public consumption, if there is no one to read it?"
Steven Cohen. Corporate Library Blogs. (.pdf) B/iTE. Nov./Dec. 2004.
Attribution: SNTReport.com first discovered news of these points to consider for a corporate library blog through a posting in Library Stuff, edited by Steven M. Cohen.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"IBM has decided to let open-source developers use 500 software patents without fear of an infringement lawsuit, a new step in its encouragement of the collaborative programming philosophy.
"It is a small but significant measure for a company with major efforts to patent its research, then license those patents. Still, the vast majority of IBM's 10,000 software patents in the United States aren't being shared so freely.
"The move follows that of Linux seller Red Hat, a comparatively small company that objects to software patents but allows unfettered use of its own smaller portfolio in open-source software. And Novell, the second-largest Linux seller, has vowed to use its own patent portfolio to deter and counter legal attacks against open-source software."
Stephen Shankland. IBM Offers 500 Patents for Open-Source Use. News.com. Jan. 10, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The Public Library of Science, a pioneering U.S. non-profit publisher of open access journals, will launch three new journals this year.
" Part of an ambitious plan to transform scientific publishing, PLoS launched PLoS Biology in 2003 and PLoS Medicine in 2004, both with the support of the Gordon and Bettie Moore Foundation. Next up are PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS Genetics, and PLoS Pathogens.
"PLoS is partnering with the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) to publish PLoS Computational Biology. The journal, now accepting submissions, is scheduled to launch in June 2005. PLoS Genetics, also now accepting submissions, will launch in July 2005. PLoS Pathogens will begin accepting submissions in March 2005 and begin publishing in autumn of 2005."
No author. PLoS to Launch New Journals. Library Journal. Jan. 11, 2005.
See also:
Public Library of Science. Public Library of Science to Launch Additional Open-Access Journals. (Press Release.) Jan. 6, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Can Internet volunteers improve journalism? Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy 'Jimbo' Wales is out to find out.
"Wikipedia is a very successful online encyclopedia written and edited by thousands of volunteers. Now they are trying the collaborative wiki process on news. The project, called Wikinews, is in its early stages and faces clear challenges, from the difficulty of doing original reporting to delivering news quickly in a peer review model.
"Wikinews is just one of several wiki-related efforts--from an online dictionary to freely available textbooks--being run by the nonprofit Wiki Media Foundation. But Wikinews appears to be the project in development getting the most attention--at least from journalists.
"Wales spoke to CNET News.com about Wikinews and the 'burgeoning culture' around wikis."
Martin LaMonica. Open-Sourcing the News. News.com. Jan. 7, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A thought suddenly struck me yesterday when I was reading the press release for Microsoft's new Windows AntiSpyware product. If Microsoft's product is really going to clean up spyware effectively, how will it do so without violating the licensing agreement of Claria's Gator and other spyware/adware?
"An increasingly common provision in the adware EULAs is a prohibition against using third party software to remove the program. As spyware researcher Ben Edelman reported in November,, Claria's EULA only allows removal of Gator and related software through a cumbersome process using the Windows Add/Remove Programs menu. Removing it through the use of spyware detection programs, presumably including Microsoft's new offering, is a violation of the EULA."
Ed Foster. Is Microsoft Violating the Gator EULA?. The Gripe Line Weblog. Jan. 7, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"In the evidence presented to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee Inquiry into Scientific Publications, many dubious arguments have been used by traditional publishers to attack the new Open Access publishing model.
"Below, BioMed Central responds to some of the most prevalent and most misleading anti-Open Access arguments."
Jonathan B Weitzman. (Mis)Leading Open Access Myths. Open Access Now. No date.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The prescription drug industry's main trade group announced Thursday that its member companies will begin voluntarily posting information about ongoing clinical trials for all diseases this summer on a government Web site.
"Drug companies have come under fire in recent months for allegedly withholding unfavorable research findings, and the American Medical Association as well as some members of Congress have called for mandatory reporting of all clinical-trial results."
Under current law, drug companies are required to post information at www.clinicaltrials.gov only about trials of drugs for serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions.
Rita Rubin. Drugmakers to Voluntarily Post Info Online About Clinical Trials. USA Today. Jan. 6, 2005.
See also:
No author. Drug Industry’s Plan to Voluntarily Report Clinical Trials Falls Short of Ensuring Drug Safety for Consumers. Pharmalive.com. Jan. 6, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Federal spending on e-government-related initiatives will continue to grow through 2009, according to new analysis from Input.
"A report released today by the market research firm projects an annual compound growth rate of 6.9 percent during the next five fiscal years, from slightly more than $4 billion in fiscal 2004 to nearly $6 billion by fiscal 2009.
"The report defines e-government as any mission-oriented information system classifiable under four customer segments outlined by the Office of Management and Budget: government-to-citizen, government-to-business, government-to-government, and internal efficiency and effectiveness. That definition includes more than the 24 e-government projects OMB initiated in 2002."
David Perera. Input: E-gov Budget to Grow. FCW. Jan. 6, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Six Apart said on Thursday it had acquired Danga Interactive Inc., bringing together two pioneers of online journals known as blogs and creating a stronger rival to Google Inc.'s Blogger.com service.
"Terms of the stock and cash transaction were not disclosed, said closely held San Francisco-based Six Apart, which developed the popular Movable Type online publishing software and the TypePad blogging service.
"Danga, which is based in Portland, Oregon and also privately held, operates the blogging service LiveJournal, which is popular among adolescents and teenagers."
Duncan Martell. Six Apart Acquires Maker of LiveJournal Weblogs. Reuters. Jan. 6, 2005.
See also:
Michael Bazeley. Six Apart Interview. SiliconBeat. Jan. 6, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"At just over ten years of age, the U.S. federal government’s external web presence is maturing, if not yet mature. Federal government agencies are using their websites as serious, central communications channels rather than as showy supplements to older channels such as printed publications, paper correspondence, or telephone hotlines.
"Gone are the exciting 'Information Highway' days of the 1990s when researchers watched anxiously for news of agencies coming online one by one, each with a small chunk of content, often on a pilot basis. It was a bumpy road, with some agencies speeding away, others stalling, and all generally headed in different directions.
"Today, researchers travel a relatively more predictable route. We assume that a federal agency has a web site, that certain categories of information will be available, and that certain tools for finding that information will be provided. It is a good time to take stock of exactly what these sites have to offer. What follows is an alphabetical list of content that researchers can expect to find on federal, executive branch websites, and where on the site they can expect to find it."
Peggy Garvin. The Federal Web: Content at the Ten-year Mark. LLRX.com. Dec. 27, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"SpikeSource, a start-up headed by computing industry veteran Kim Polese, has revealed more details of its plan to tap into the growing popularity of open-source software at corporations.
"When it launched earlier this year, SpikeSource said it was working toward offering maintenance and support services for packaged open-source components to businesses. In an interview with CNET News.com, Polese fleshed out the company's planned lineup, which includes automated delivery of software and services for a 'hybrid' of infrastructure software, both open source and proprietary.
"'Our focus is software as a service--it's delivering a stream of updates and remote management of open-source stacks,' Polese said. 'We're going from do-it-yourself software to fully integrated and supported.'"
Martin LaMonica. Polese Opens Up on Open-Source Plans. News.com. Jan. 4, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Ten major international libraries have agreed to combine their digitised book collections into a free text-based archive hosted online by the not-for-profit Internet Archive. All content digitised and held in the text archive will be freely available to online users.
"Two major US libraries have agreed to join the scheme: Carnegie Mellon University library and The Library of Congress have committed their Million Book Project and American Memory Projects, respectively, to the text archive. The projects both provide access to digitised collections.
"The Canadian universities of Toronto, Ottawa and McMaster have agreed to add their collections, as have China's Zhejiang University, the Indian Institute of Science, the European Archives and Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt."
Mark Chillingworth. Internet Archive to Build Alternative to Google. Information World Review. Dec. 21, 2004.
See also:
Internet Archive. International Libraries and the Internet Archive Collaborate to Build Open-Access Text Archives. Dec. 15, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"By the end of 2004 blogs had established themselves as a key part of online culture.
"Two surveys by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in November established new contours for the blogosphere: 8 million American adults say they have created blogs; blog readership jumped 58% in 2004 and now stands at 27% of internet users; 5% of internet users say they use RSS aggregators or XML readers to get the news and other information delivered from blogs and content-rich Web sites as it is posted online; and 12% of internet users have posted comments or other material on blogs.
"Still, 62% of internet users do not know what a blog is."
Pew Internet and American Life Project. The State of Blogging. Jan. 2, 2005.
Lee Rainie. The State of Blogging. (.pdf) Pew Internet and American Life Project. Jan. 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Freewheeling bloggers can boost your product - or destroy it. Either way, they've become a force business can't afford to ignore.
"The blog - short for weblog - can indeed be, as Scoble and Gates say, fabulous for relationships. But it can also be much more: a company's worst PR nightmare, its best chance to talk with new and old customers, an ideal way to send out information, and the hardest way to control it. Blogs are challenging the media and changing how people in advertising, marketing, and public relations do their jobs. A few companies like Microsoft are finding ways to work with the blogging world;even as they're getting hammered by it. So far, most others are simply ignoring it.
"That will get harder: According to blog search-engine and measurement firm Technorati, 23,000 new weblogs are created every day - or about one every three seconds. Each blog adds to an inescapable trend fueled by the Internet: the democratization of power and opinion. Blogs are just the latest tool that makes it harder for corporations and other institutions to control and dictate their message. An amateur media is springing up, and the smart are adapting. Says Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman Public Relations: 'Now you've got to pitch the bloggers too. You can't just pitch to conventional media.'"
David Kirkpatrick and Daniel Roth. Why There's No Escaping the Blog. Fortune. Jan. 10, 2005.
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"With the publication of a new specification, the Web's leading standards organization promised XML authors a simpler way to merge documents.
"The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) on Monday recommended XML Inclusions (XInclude) Version 1.0, a specification designed to replace awkward work-arounds for combining XML documents.
"'Inclusion is the ability to reuse content, which lets me take something like a copyright statement and include it on all my company's XML documents,' said Philippe Le Hegaret, the W3C's architecture domain leader. 'Without an inclusion mechanism, you have to copy and paste, and this lets you just reference it.'"
Paul Festa. XML Documents Merger Ahead. News.com. Dec. 20, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Librarians, academicians, journalists, information industry pundits, and real people continue to ring in with comments, concerns, quarrels, and commendations for Google’s new library program. 'This is the day the world changes,' said John Wilkin, a University of Michigan librarian working with Google. 'It will be disruptive because some people will worry that this is the beginning of the end of libraries. But this is something we have to do to revitalize the profession and make it more meaningful.'
"When asked whether Google is building the library to replace all other libraries, Google representatives—after saluting the role of librarians—said they had 'no such plans at the moment. There was too much work to do.'
"Here is a roundup of some of the questions asked and answers posited."
Barbara Quint. Google’s Library Project: Questions, Questions, Questions. InformationToday.com. Dec. 27, 2004.
See also:
Mary Minow. Google-Watchers - Want Privacy Guarantees Before Handing Over Library Books for Google Digitization. LibraryLaw Blog. Dec. 16, 2004.
Gary Price. Google Partners with Oxford, Harvard & Others to Digitize Libraries. Search Engine Watch. Dec. 14, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"British music giant HMV on Wednesday announced plans to launch a digital music service next year, using software being developed by Microsoft.
"Music downloads from the service will be compatible with the Windows Media Audio standard and usable by more than 75 portable players currently on the market, HMV said. Portable players, as well as the service software, will be sold in the company's stores and online. The service is slated to launch in the second half of 2005.
"Microsoft applications under development for the service include a customized jukebox that will let users select, purchase and manage their music online--all in one place. HMV said it intends to spend about $19 million (10 million pounds) on the download service and initial marketing."
Dinesh C. Sharma. HMV Taps Microsoft for Help With Music Service. News.com. Dec. 22, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"In the legislative battle over copyright and file swapping, you might assume the entertainment industry's lobbyists are sitting fat and pretty.
"Nothing could be further from the truth, and the constellation of forces in Washington could be ripe for a redrawing, said Declan McCullagh--one of the many columnists who offered CNET News.com readers insight and analysis of the major tech events of 2004."
Charles Cooper. Year in Review:Politicos in the Crosshairs. News.com. Dec. 25, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"By Sept. 30, the Office of Management and Budget wants agencies to increase their systems security by 20 percent and receive approval on an additional 19 percent of their business cases. These were two of five goals the administration laid out in its new report, Expanding E-Government: Partnering for a Results-Oriented Governmenta. (.pdf)
"In the past year, agencies secured 70 percent of their systems, and the administration approved 56 percent of all business cases, OMB said. By the end of fiscal 2005, the White House wants agencies to secure 90 percent of all systems, have them accredited by the agencies’ inspectors general and receive approval for 75 percent of their business cases.
"OMB also wants at least 50 percent of agencies to use earned-value management to manage IT portfolios and to make sure they have no IT skill gaps. Only 32 percent of the agencies meet the EVM requirement, Evans said."
Jason Miller. OMB outlines E-Gov Goals for 2005. WashingtonPost.com. Dec. 20, 2004.
See also:
Daniel Pulliam. OMB to Evaluate E-gov Initiatives. GovExec. Dec. 21, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
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"The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) this week published a final version of its 'Architecture of the World Wide Web, Volume 1' document, looking to set forth codified principles for the Web itself.
"Published as a formal W3C recommendation, the architecture features components for URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers), data formats, and protocols such as HTTP.
"'The purpose of this document is [to serve as a guide] if you need to know everything about the Web in 50 pages, in a sense,' said Dan Connolly, member of the W3C Technical Architecture Group."
Paul Krill. W3C Publishes Web Architecture. InfoWorld. Dec. 16, 2004.
See also:
World Wide Web Consortium. World Wide Web Consortium Issues "Architecture of the World Wide Web, Volume One" as a W3C Recommendation. (Press Release) Dec. 15, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"IBM is building software it hopes will make it the Google of corporate-search technology.
"Big Blue has been quietly working on data storage software designed to greatly improve the ability of companies to find business documents scattered across their networks, Janet Perna, the general manager of IBM's information management group, told CNET News.com.
"The new software, along with other information-retrieval products IBM already has, underscores the company's shift out of low-cost hardware, notably PCs, and into higher-margin software and services. The move is meant to accelerate IBM's transition from a relational database company into a provider of a full range of information management software, Perna said."
Martin LaMonica. Can IBM Be A Google for Businesses?. News.com. Dec. 13, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Karlyn Neel propelled herself into uncharted territory by joining Friendster, the popular Web site for gabbing and dating.
"In the year since then, she has amassed a network of online friends that is almost too big to manage and landed several DJ gigs. She has also been referred to a musician in Portugal with whom she has recorded a few songs, sending audio tracks back and forth by instant messaging.
"Neel is living the promise of online social networking, an industry that was engulfed in extraordinary buzz a year ago. Now trying to get their businesses in order, the services are still attracting millions of users as they try to find new ways to keep them interested."
Verne Kopytoff. Log On, Link Up. San Francisco Chronicle. Dec. 13, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A peer-to-peer industry trade group is launching a Web site aimed at educating consumers about the dangers of child pornography online and helping them report it to law enforcement.
"The Distributed Computing Industry Association's P2P Patrol site will go live Monday, as part of a larger approach to the issue, DCIA Chief Executive Officer Marty Lafferty said.
"Previously, the group has worked with law enforcement to help find online child pornographers and has helped create a tool that pops up a warning to computer users if they are searching for a term frequently associated with the illicit material."
John Borland. P2P Group Launches Site to Combat Child Porn. News.com. Dec. 12, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Who says 'Solitaire' must be a lonely endeavor? Games tailored for cell phones are increasingly adding community-oriented elements, such as tournaments for top scores, head-to-head combat or chatting with other players.
"After all, the ubiquitous gadget is meant to connect people. 'The mobile phone is really turning into a social computer,' said Trip Hawkins, founder of Digital Chocolate Inc.
"The San Mateo-based startup is one of more than 300 companies developing games for U.S. cell phone users. Its offerings includes 'Solitaire', in its so-called mobile league, in which players can post scores and compete for rank and glory."
Associated Press. Mobile Games Get Fancier, More Social. CBS MarketWatch. Dec. 12, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Business Web sites that foster an aura of community trust may hold the key to the future of online politics.
"A panel of Internet gurus gathered Friday at the fifth annual Votes, Bits & Bytes conference here, held by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School to discuss the impact of Internet business models on online politics.
"The panelists said the most valuable lesson online campaigners may be able to garner from Web-based companies is that building a sense of trust remains at the center of winning loyalty from customers or political followers."
Matt Hines. Net Communities May be Key to Future of Politics. News.com. Dec. 10, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Friendster has rolled out a new internet search service powered by Eurekster that taps into your online social network to personalize and enhance search results.
"The new service takes advantages of the preferences and interests of Friendster members and their friends to filter search results to more closely match personal interests than general web search engines. The service is powered by Eurekster, which uses the Yahoo web index and also includes Overture sponsored listings.
"The service automatically keeps a history of your searches, allowing you to filter results based on your previous search activity. Results can also be influenced by your personal network ("friends," "friends of friends," and so on) or all Friendster members."
Chris Sherman. Friendster, Eurekster Team Up for Personalized Search. Search Engine Watch. Dec. 9, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"State Department officials are about to retire their World War II-era cable system and replace it with a new communications network for diplomats worldwide.
In the coming months, department officials will launch a long-awaited intranet that will link posts in northern Europe and the United States electronically.
For the first time, diplomats will be able to access secret and sensitive documents from anywhere in the world through the network instead of waiting for a diplomatic cable to arrive at their location."
Judi Hasson. State Department: Reach Out and Touch Someone. FCW.com. Dec. 13, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Five prestigious university and public libraries have reached agreement with Google Inc. to digitize millions of volumes in their collections and make portions of the text available for free to computer users online, the search giant plans to announce today.
"The collaboration is likely to rekindle debate about the extent to which books should be available on the Internet. Some publishers worry that such efforts will depress sales. But the libraries say online access can be a boon to researchers and a benefit to people who do not have access to high-quality collections.
"Initially, some of the libraries plan to make available the full text of books that are in the public domain while offering snippets or excepts of books protected by copyright."
David A. Vise. Google to Digitize Some Library Collections. WashingtonPost.com. Dec. 14, 2004.
Cynthia L. Webb. Google -- 21st Century Dewey Decimal System. WashingtonPost.com. Dec. 14, 2004.
See also:
Hiawatha Bray. Google to Index Works at Harvard, Other Major Libraries. The Boston Globe. Dec. 14, 2004.
Gary Price. Google Partners with Oxford, Harvard & Others to Digitize Libraries. Search Engine Watch. Dec. 14, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
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"America Online Inc. has confirmed that it mistakenly deactivated a number of AOL Instant Messenger accounts this week as part of its regular cycle of opening unused screen names to new users.
"AOL, whose instant messaging service is among the most widely used worldwide, had begun releasing screen names that had gone unused when it snarled the accounts of some active users in the process, an AOL spokeswoman confirmed to eWEEK.com. The Dulles, Va., company is working to restore the mistakenly turned-off accounts by Monday.
"The mistake surprised AIM users, many of whom took to Weblogs to try to figure out if they were alone in being cut off from IM."
Matt Hicks and Ryan Naraine. AOL Locks Out IM Users. eWeek. Dec. 9, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"In the past three years, particularly this year, the link between the music industry and the video game industry -- the former in a revenue slump, the latter on a revenue high -- has gotten only closer.
"For example, the rock-punk band Incubus wrote music for Halo 2, and Snoop Dogg's cover of the Doors classic 'Riders on the Storm' made its debut on Need for Speed Underground 2. Both games were released last month.
"For artists as established as Green Day, whose 'American Idiot' has just been nominated for a Grammy as record of the year, winning a spot on Madden NFL's soundtrack is like having a 20-second commercial on 'Monday Night Football' or 'Desperate Housewives.' For an up-and-comer such as the Game, it's an even bigger deal, the kind of break that gives instant celebrity. For both, it's a new route to an old audience, as sure a bet as any when it comes to grabbing a prized demographic: 18-to-34-year-old males, 75 percent of whom play video games, according to Nielsen Interactive Entertainment."
Jose Antonio Vargas. Musicians Are Making Tracks to Video Games. WashingtonPost.com. Dec. 9, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
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"When fire destroyed a historic building in Brattleboro, Vt., in the wee hours of Saturday, the local daily newspaper had already been put to bed. But by dawn, local residents had posted photos and their own stories about the blaze on iBrattleboro.com, a local Web site where anyone can write the news.
"Residents in the town of 12,000 spent the weekend using the site to publicly discuss ways to help the 11 people who had been hurt or displaced -- and even look for lost cats.
"One-year-old iBrattleboro.com is at the vanguard of the latest wave of Web publishers trying to build audiences by delivering local news. What's different about their efforts from those in the past is that they are relying on a new ally: local residents.
Leslie Walker. On Local Sites, Everyone's A Journalist. WashingtonPost.com. Dec. 9, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
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"The United States is behind the curve on deployment of the next generation of Internet protocols, but the Defense Department’s decision to transition to IP Version 6 is helping to move the nation ahead, said Alex Lightman, chairman of the U.S. IPv6 Summit.
"'It signals the return of DOD to Internet leadership,' Lightman said in an interview with GCN. 'The department really is seeking a consensus with industry and other government agencies.'
"The Internet protocols are the rules defining how computers and other devices communicate with each other. Most hardware and software today use IPv4, which has been in use for more than 20 years. The Internet community developed version 6 during the 1990s with a greatly expanded address space and added support for mobility and security."
William Jackson. With IPv6, DOD is Again an Internet Leader. CGN.com. Dec. 8, 2004.
See also:
George Leopold. DoD Targets IPv6 as Catalyst for Net-Centric Warfare. Internet Week. Dec. 9, 2004.
William Jackson. Microsoft’s Next OS Will Have IPv6 Built In. GCN.com. Dec. 8, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has updated its policy on sharing weather-related information. The agency still plans to make the data easily accessible on the Web.
"The policy update follows a year of debate over how vigorously NOAA should work to disseminate its weather information, and how much it should leave to industry.
"It is a reworking of a 1991 policy that defined how the National Weather Service should work with the private sector in collecting and disseminating weather information to the public. Released as a draft for comment in January, the proposed policy received 1,473 comments, at least 1,190 supporting the policy and 176 opposing it."
Joab Jackson. NOAA Updates Policy on Weather Info Dissemination. GCN.com. Dec. 7, 2004.
See also:
Kimberly Palmer. NOAA Pledges to Better Disseminate Weather Information. GovExec.com. Dec. 9, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Wi-Fi networks can help companies dependent on older technologies leapfrog intermediate steps and go right to the cutting edge.
"Some companies and industry sectors are finding the use of Wi-Fi to be a helpful way to leap ahead to cutting edge technology while skipping intermediary steps saving time and money.
"Just ask Robert Israel, the CIO at the two John C. Lincoln hospitals in Phoenix, Ariz. Thanks to a Wi-Fi network he installed last year in one of the two hospitals, the CIO feels like he's leapt forward several thousands of centuries -- from using an over-head paging system to using voice-activated portable communicators that run off a wireless network."
Jeanette James. Wi-Fi: From the Stone Age to Star Trek. CIO Update. Dec. 1, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
One out of every five New York state agencies is ignoring the law that requires them to disclose public information in a timely fashion, according to a state watchdog group's report released Wednesday.
"The New York Public Interest Research Group sent Freedom of Information Law requests to 142 state agencies and authorities, and found 20 percent did not respond within two weeks -- well past the five days required for response under state law. The ones that did respond charged up to $6,000 to provide information that they are required to make available under state law.
"The group asked for two items agencies are required by law to keep and make available to the public -- a list of all employees with salaries and titles and a reasonably detailed, current list by subject matter of the agencies' records."
Erin Duggan. Access to Data Criticized. Timesunion.com. Dec. 2, 2004.
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"Blogs, says Charlie O'Donnell, are frequently updated, personal journals posted on the Web - think Web plus log equals blog. Bloggers with similar interests end up finding one another, linking to and often posting responses on one another's blogs. Hence communities form.
In the past six months, O'Donnell, 24, an equities analyst in Manhattan, has identified 40 to 50 bloggers in the venture capital field he likes to keep up with. The snippets, rumors, hypotheses he gets from them help him stay ahead of the crowd. 'I don't want to wait three months' he says, 'before the mainstream media - no offense - finds out about a new technology.' (Thanks, Charlie.)
"He also authors a blog himself on his Web site, www.find mypath.com, where he shares career advice with college students. He tells them how they can research their chosen fields by reading blogs written by 'thought leaders' in their industries. And, indeed, much can be gained - information on trends, companies that are expanding, advice on getting a job - as long as young people master the basics of networking, with the first rule being: Thou shalt not come right out and do the 'help-me, help-me' needy thing and ask people for jobs."
Patricia Kitchen. Blogging Bluepoint. Newsday.com. Dec. 5, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"While government agencies, academics, and publishers debate over whether or not publicly funded research results should be freely available, Stanford University’s HighWire Press has been doing its part in taking responsibility for the Open Archive.
"Participating HighWire-hosted publishers have been steadily growing the world’s largest collection of open access, high-impact scholarly research online.
"Today, more than 780,000 free peer-reviewed, full-text articles are available at www.highwire.org. This open archive covers a wide range of not-for-profit titles. Over 90% of the articles in the government repository are already available for free in their complete context (the entire online journal, not just individual articles), with advanced full-text searching and toll-free reference linking, through HighWire."
No author. Free eJournal Archive Passes 3/4 Million Mark. Managing Information. Dec. 1, 2004.
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"Nextel Communications Inc. (NXTL) and Research In Motion (RIM) today announced the availability of the BlackBerry 7520 Wireless Handheld(TM). The BlackBerry 7520(TM) features Bluetooth(R) technology for hands-free, wireless communications using Bluetooth-enabled headsets and car kits. It also incorporates GPS technology with E911 support.
"The BlackBerry 7520 provides a true mobile office experience, enabling phone, Direct Connect(R), email and data applications in a single integrated device. It operates on Nextel's guaranteed all-digital network to provide mobile professionals the freedom to access information and communicate while away from the office.
"The BlackBerry 7520 also includes the features that have made the BlackBerry 7510 from Nextel so popular and functional, including wireless access to email and email attachments, phone, Nextel Online(R) Wireless Web, intranet and organizer applications, speakerphone and Direct Connect(R), the powerful coast-to-coast and country-to-country digital walkie-talkie service."
Business Wire. Nextel and RIM Introduce New BlackBerry 7520; BlackBerry 7520 First to Combine Bluetooth, Speakerphone and Cross Border Walkie Talkie Services. CBS MarketWatch. Dec. 6, 2004.
"Thanks to Wi-Fi networks, cellphones and global positioning locators, there's a new sense of place in the city.
"In November 2003, New Yorker architecture critic Paul Goldberger penned a diatribe in Metropolis magazine against the isolation and dissolution of place wrought by the pervasive use of cellphones on city streets. 'The mobile phone renders a public place less public,' he wrote. 'It turns the boulevardier into a sequestered individual, the flâneur into a figure of privacy. And suddenly the meaning of the street as a public place has been hugely diminished.'
"Goldberger's critique of mobile communications technology capped over a decade of analysis revolving around the ability of global communications networks -- for better and for worse -- to release people from the constraints of time and place."
Linda Baker. Urban Renewal, the Wireless Way. Salon. Nov. 29, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: Salon.com normally requires a paid subscription, but you can view articles if you register for a free day pass.)
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"The battle over digital copyrights and illegal file sharing is often portrayed as a struggle between Internet scofflaws and greedy corporations. Online music junkies with no sense of the marketplace, the argument goes, want to download, copy and share copyrighted materials without restriction. The recording industry, on the other hand, wants to squeeze dollars - by lawsuit and legislation, if necessary - from its property.
"A survey released yesterday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, an arm of the Pew Research Center in Washington, aims to change that. The report, 'Artists, Musicians and the Internet,' combines and compares the opinions of three groups: the general public, those who identify themselves as artists of various stripes (including filmmakers, writers and digital artists) and a somewhat more self-selecting category of musicians.
"Most notably, it is the first large-scale snapshot of what the people who actually produce the goods that downloaders seek (and that the industry jealously guards) think about the Internet and file-sharing."
Tom Zeller Jr. Pew File-Sharing Survey Gives a Voice to Artists. The New York Times. Dec. 6, 2004.
Mary Madden. Artists, Musicians and the Internet (.pdf) Pew Internet and American Life Project. Dec. 5, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
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"Internet luminaries gathered in Boston Wednesday to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), honor its founder, Director and Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, and look forward to another decade of innovation.
"Speakers at the gathering recounted, in sometimes excruciating detail, the events leading to the creation of the Web and the W3C, which has promoted a long line of key Web standards, including HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and XML (Extensible Markup Language). Experts, including representatives of leading technology firms, also looked forward to future developments backed by the W3C, including the Semantic Web, which will allow users to access and connect more types and sources of data online.
"Berners-Lee was the star of the gathering, and he used the occasion to focus attention on W3C's ongoing work, including the Semantic Web, a World Wide Web extension that greatly expands the information types and relationships between information that can be represented online."
Paul Roberts. W3C Focuses on Future at 10th Anniversary Meeting. InfoWorld. Dec. 2, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Netflix has added a social networking element to its online DVD-rental service with the preview launch of Netflix Friends.
"The Friends feature allows subscribers to invite other subscribers to join their network of friends, and then share movie reviews and ratings with them. Non-subscribers are invited in the same e-mail to join Netflix with a free two-week trial of the service.
"Friends content can be accessed from a special section of the site, where users can view movies that people in their network have recently seen, have rated highly or hated. This content is also integrated into sections around the site, with friends' ratings and 'Two Cents' -- short reviews viewable only by friends -- available on each movie's description page."
Kevin Newcomb. Netflix Gets Social. ClickZNews. Dec. 3, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"There are probably not many that are familiar with the new search engine for finding material online that can be used without paying royalty or clearing copyright issues. Finding this kind of material is naturally of great interest to e.g. people in the media who need to know if they can use a given text, photo or stream etc. without risking a lawsuit.
"Since September a beta version of a Creative Commons search engine has been available that lets you search for just this kind of thing.
"This new search engine has not been launched in a big way, but in the new web browser FireFox 1.0 from Mozilla, it has high visibility: In the search box in the upper right corner, the Creative Commons search engine is right there among Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, Ebay and Dictionary.com!"
Lars Vage. Creative Commons Search Engine in the New FireFox. Pandia. Dec. 2, 2004.
See also:
Creative Commons. Creative Commons Unique Search Tool Now Integrated into Firefox 1.0. (Press Release) Nov. 22, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"As a teenager, Shawn Fanning brought free music to the masses, creating the Napster file-swapping program and unleashing a technological genie that granted the wishes of fans seeking virtually any song at any time - gratis. Now, the recording industry is turning to the college dropout turned cult hero, with dreams of putting the genie back in its bottle.
"The major record corporations, who accused Mr. Fanning's Napster of ravaging CD sales and weakening the underpinnings of the industry, now say that a licensed file-sharing system could bolster their position in their legal fight against piracy as well as increase digital music sales.
"Mr. Fanning, now 24 and part of a new venture called Snocap, has lately written software that would recognize songs being made available on a peer-to-peer network and let copyright holders set terms for its price and its use by consumers who wish to download them."
Jeff Leeds. Music Industry Turns to Napster Creator for Help. The New York Times. Dec. 3, 2004.
See also:
John Borland. Napster Founder Unveils Funding, Label Support. News.com. Dec. 2, 2004.
John Borland. Music Rebels Seek to Tame P2P. News.com. Nov. 16, 2004.
John Borland and Stefanie Olsen. Napster's Fanning Has Snocap-ped Vision. News.com. Jan. 2, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
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"Databases and search engines provide instantaneous access to endless information about anyone or anything, but the search results often include as many misses as hits. To generate more-relevant answers, organizations including the federal government are using topic maps to index their data.
"Topic maps are smart indices that improve search capabilities by categorizing terms based on their relationships with other things. For example, William Shakespeare is a topic that would be mapped to essays about him, his plays and his famous quotes.
"Organizing content with topic maps provides context for words that can have multiple meanings, according to Patrick Durusau, chairman of a topic maps technical committee at OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards."
John Gartner. Searching Smarter, Not Harder. Wired News. Nov. 30, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A four-letter term that came to symbolize the difference between old and new media during this year's presidential campaign tops U.S. dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster's list of the 10 words of the year.
"Merriam-Webster said Tuesday that 'blog,' defined as 'a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks,' was one of the most looked-up words on its Internet sites this year.
"Eight entries on the publisher's top-10 list related to major news events, from the presidential election--represented by words such as incumbent and partisan--to natural phenomena such as hurricane and cicada."
Reuters. 'Blog' Top Word of the Year. News.com. Nov. 30, 2004.
Merriam-Webster Online. Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year 2004. No date.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Microsoft is looking to take on Google's Blogger and other blog-creation and hosting services.
"Microsoft's MSN division is expected to take the wraps off its MSN Spaces blogging service this week, according to sources close to the company.
"MSN is expected to tout MSN Spaces as a direct competitor to blog-creation and hosting tools, such as Blogger, Blog*Spot, LiveJournal and TypePad. Microsoft also will position MSN Spaces as a way to allow users to more easily share photo albums and music lists, too, insiders said."
Mary Jo Foley. MSN Readies New Blogging Service. Microsoft Watch. Nov. 30, 2004.
See also:
Matt Hicks. MSN Launches Blog Service with IM Ties. Dec. 1, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"U.S. and Iranian officials have signed an agreement to share library materials, giving scholars in America their first access to such items from Iran since Islamic militants took over the U.S. Embassy there in 1979.
"The agreement, signed Nov. 4, authorizes exchange of books and periodicals, information on research technology, cooperation on preserving old manuscripts, exploring invitations to one another to take part in fairs, exhibitions and cultural programs including films and music.
"The Library of Congress has six regional offices abroad that acquire material from more than 60 countries. Iran has not participated since its Islamic revolution of 1978-79."
Carl Hartman. U.S., Iran to Share Library Materials. Yahoo! News. Nov. 30, 2004.
"For those who assume that (A) the Internet has become the world's most effective way to waste time and that (B) college students now are probably having more fun than when you were there, consider the reigning college obsession, a phenomenon so hot that The Daily Princetonian editorialized that it's 'possibly the biggest word-of-mouth trend to hit campus since St. Ives Medicated Apricot Scrub found its way into the women's bathrooms.'
That would be Thefacebook.com, a Web site that began 10 months ago with five Harvard students and is now the most popular way to either network or waste time for a million college students at around 300 colleges, from Yale to the University of the Pacific.
"Students sign up from their campus e-mail address (only school networks are accepted) and are able to visit the listing of everyone who signs up at their school, with thumbnail links (just name and picture) to students at all the other colleges."
Peter Applebome. On Campus, Hanging Out by Logging On. The New York Times. Dec. 1, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"In the past few years, blogs have gone from a quirky vehicle for expression to a political force to, now, a quirky marketing tool for corporate America.
"This year, Nike, Dr Pepper, Mazda, SBC and others have staked claims in the blogosphere. They've found blogging (short for 'Web-logging') an easy, cheap way to appear hipper and keep customers engaged with the brand. The cost is a pittance -- just some spare server space.
"'It's a relatively small investment and can elicit a lot of information because it's such a democratic medium,' said Matthew Cross, brand consultant at Interbrand, New York. 'Compared to the millions companies spend to create or revitalize a brand, and then do TV spots and a print campaign, it's pennies to the dollar to do a blog.'"
Diane Anderson. Blogs: Fad or Marketing Medium of the Future?. Adweek. Nov.29, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Ramesh Rao, a director of the California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology, aims to get wireless networks on talking terms.
"Formerly the director of UCSD's Center for Wireless Communication, Rao now runs the San Diego side of the California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology. A massive joint venture between UCSD and UC Irvine, the institute's multidisciplinary wireless research ranges from smart antennas and RF integrated circuit design to a wireless testbed and new protocols for cellular multimedia applications such as telemedicine.
"According to Rao, the future potential of mobile technology won't truly be realized until the wireless spectrum's Tower of Babel is toppled."
David Pescovitz. Wireless Research's Biggest Hurdle and Largest Opportunity. TheFeature. Nov. 25, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"One of the most pressing strategic questions facing e-commerce sites in their struggle to become profitable is how to turn browsers into paying customers. Part of the answer is a robust search engine -- smart technology that makes it easy for customers to find what they're looking for.
"But an even bigger part of the answer involves human intervention -- smart people who can interpret customer inquiries and deduce what they really want.
"That's Alissa Kozuh's job at Nordstrom.com. Kozuh, 28, who formerly worked on search-related projects for Microsoft, is now the editor of Nordstrom.com, where her most important role is to analyze the words that people put into the site's search engine every month."
Ron Lieber. She Reads Customers' Minds. Fast Company Magazine. Feb. 2001.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"U2 singer Bono strode onto stage at Apple Computer's iPod release party last month with his trademark swagger and sunglasses, along with words of praise for the company and its music products.
"In the online music business, where top artist exclusives are the subject of bitter competition, this was a singular coup. On the eve of a major record release, U2 was freely giving Apple the rights to use its first single in an iPod commercial, was lending its brand to a new version of the music player, and giving the company first crack at selling its new single and album online.
"This combination of idealism, fear and hunger for publicity is driving a cozy new relationship between the music business and young online music services, which insiders say is likely to define the online music industry for years to come."
John Borland. For Net Music, Exclusives are King. News.com. Nov. 26, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Is the entertainment industry losing its clout on Capitol Hill? At first blush, a lot of people might find that to be a laughable proposition. But a prominent architect of the Recording Industry Association of America's legal strategy confided to me last week that his colleagues are being 'outgunned' in the legislative skirmishing over new copyright laws.
"It may seem counterintuitive, but there is some truth to that statement. It explains why Marybeth Peters from the U.S. Copyright Office is saying that the entertainment industry won't get what it wants from Congress before politicians leave town for Thanksgiving.
"Predicting what copyright legislation will be enacted in the last days of the 108th Congress is a risky business, but one thing is certain: The list of laws will not include the Induce Act, which is revered by the entertainment industry but reviled by technology companies."
Declan McCullagh. Outgunned on Copyright?. News.com. Nov. 22, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The benefits to scientists of open access scientific publishing provided by the internet are too significant to be ignored, says Matthew Cockerill.
"The progress of science is ultimately defined by peer-reviewed journal articles: they record the results of research and act as a foundation for all future research.
"In the UK alone, billions of pounds of tax-payers’ money are spent annually on research, so the government might be expected to take a prudent interest in how the resulting journal articles are published, archived and made accessible. Surprisingly, though, copyright to publicly funded research articles is routinely signed over to publishers, who then sell limited, subscription-based access back to the scientific community.
"The cost of publishing a scientific research article is a tiny fraction of what it costs to do the research in the first place; yet publishers end up controlling access to the findings."
Matthew Cockerill and John Enderby. Internet Upstarts v Traditional Publishers. FT.com. Nov. 25, 2004.
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"Giving away an album online isn't the way most artists end up with gold records. But it worked out that way for Wilco.
After being dropped from Reprise Records in 2001 over creative conflicts surrounding Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the Chicago-based band committed what some thought would be suicide -- they streamed it online for free.
"By conventional industry logic, file sharing hurts the odds for commercial success. Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy disagrees. Wired News caught up with him during his current tour to find out just what makes Wilco so wired."
Xeni Jardin. 'Music Is Not a Loaf of Bread'. Wired News. Nov. 15, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Google Inc. plans to announce on Thursday that it is adding a new search service aimed at scientists and academic researchers.
"Google Scholar, which was scheduled to go online Wednesday evening at scholar.google.com, is a result of the company's collaboration with a number of scientific and academic publishers and is intended as a first stop for researchers looking for scholarly literature like peer-reviewed papers, books, abstracts and technical reports.
"Google executives declined to say how many additional documents and books had been indexed and made searchable through the service. While the great majority of recent scholarly papers and periodicals are indexed on the Web, many have not been easily accessible to the public."
John Markoff. Google Plans New Service for Scientists and Scholars. The New York Times. Nov. 18, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
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"The government promises anyone with a computer will have access within a few years to millions of pages from old newspapers, a slice of American history to be viewed now only by visiting local libraries, newspaper offices or the nation's capital.
"The first of what's expected to be 30 million digitized pages from papers published from 1836 through 1922 will be available in 2006.
"Bruce Cole, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, said the National Digital Newspaper Program is to further the founding fathers' belief that knowledge of history was a necessity for government by the people."
Carl Hartman. U.S. Vows 30M Newspaper Pages To Go On Net. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Nov. 16, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Two rapidly growing Internet technologies in recent months have been social networks and peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing. Now three whiz kids have coupled those technologies together with a program released this week called Wirehog.
"Wirehog is a P2P application that works in conjunction with thefacebook.com, a social networking Web site for more than 250 colleges and universities.
Programs like Kazaa emphasize searching: You want a file and you search everyone's computer on the P2P network to find it. 'There's no searching involved with Wirehog,' says co-creator Mark Zuckerberg. 'It's about sharing interesting personal files with your friends.'"
John P. Mello Jr. Wirehog P2P Melds Social Networks and File-Sharing. TechNewsWorld. Nov. 16, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"It's been said that information wants to be free. Now some folks are saying culture wants to be free, too. And they're building a grassroots organization throughout the nation's campuses to advance that idea.
"FreeCulture.org, founded by Swarthmore students Nelson Pavlosky and Luke Smith, is advancing its mission to unfetter culture by supporting projects such as promoting the use of open-source software, encouraging student artists to adopt relaxed licensing agreements for their creations, holding remixing contests and campaigning against legislation that expands the powers of copyright holders.
"This week, the organization is holding a week-long 'Free Culture Fest' at Swarthmore to educate the public about a host of subjects, from open-source software software development to workshops on collage and intellectual property law."
John P. Mello Jr. Free Culture Fest Targets Copyright Restrictions. TechNewsWorld. Nov. 12, 2004.
See also:
Katie Dean. Students Fight Copyright Hoarders. Wired News. Nov. 10, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Mozilla's browser is taking market share away from Microsoft. Sometimes, slow and steady really does win the race.
"To misquote F. Scott Fitzgerald, there are no second acts in the lives of software projects.
"Oh sure, the developers sometimes move on to bigger and better things. When it comes to the created works, however, the trajectory is depressingly consistent: Functional simplicity gives way to feature bloat, followed by brittleness, unreliability and, barring certain monopoly-friendly market conditions, oblivion.
"A funny thing happened on the way to oblivion, however. With no employer to guide them and no market to punish them, Mozilla developers stubbornly kept plugging."
Sam Williams. Firefox -- the Flag Bearer of Free Software. Salon. Nov. 16, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: Salon.com normally requires a paid subscription, but you can view articles if you register for a free day pass.)
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"In the wake of the dot-com crash, some technology companies clamped down on telecommuting options. But thanks to better technology, employee desires and a focus on results, a number of firms in the industry are giving more workers flexibility in the way they do their jobs.
"Practices such as telecommuting and working flexible hours have been around for decades. But they became more pronounced in the late 1990s, as the Internet and e-mail made remote work more feasible. In addition, technology companies eager to snap up talent during the dot-com rush gave employees a lot of latitude when it came to work.
"But after the Internet bubble burst, some companies reviewed their workplace rules as the business world refocused on financial results."
Ed Frauenheim. At Tech Firms, Time Again for Flextime?. News.com. Nov. 15, 2004.
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"Until two weeks ago, Ellen Simonetti worked as a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines, doing her best to project the image of a stewardess from a bygone era. But it is Ms. Simonetti's very 21st-century activities that she says prompted Delta management to ground her, suspending her from flying in September and then firing her a month later.
"Ms. Simonetti has operated a Web log since January, calling it Diary of a Flight Attendant, and she says she did not hear from Delta about the site until after she posted a set of provocative photos of herself in her Delta uniform.
"But Ms. Simonetti said her supervisor called her on Oct. 29 and said she was being terminated for 'inappropriate photos in a Delta uniform.'"
Christine Negroni. Fired Flight Attendant Finds Blogs Can Backfire. The New York Times. Nov. 16, 2004.
Update: Ellen Simonetti. I Was Fired for Blogging. News.com. Dec. 16, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"When the rapper Snoop Dogg's version of the 1971 song 'Riders on the Storm' makes its debut tomorrow, it will not premiere on MTV or on the radio. Instead, the song, which was recorded with the surviving members of The Doors and includes outtakes of Jim Morrison's vocals, will be heard on Need For Speed Underground 2, a video game from Electronic Arts.
"The unusual collaboration was recorded at the behest of Steve Schnur, whose title at Electronic Arts is worldwide executive of music.
"Snoop Dogg had long wanted to cover 'Riders,' and The Doors were looking for a way to reinvent their catalog for a new generation."
Noah Robischon. Hey, Cool Music. And There's a Video Game, Too?. The New York Times. Nov. 15, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
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"The woman who writes Wonkette needed no introduction and offered no apologies Saturday, telling her peers in online journalism that web logs like hers have spurred a quicker response to breaking news by major media outlets.
"Ana Marie Cox and others who maintain blogs were criticized after the Nov. 2 presidential election for posting exit polls throughout the day -- a practice frowned upon in the mainstream media because the data could sway the outcome.
"'To the extent to which they affect voter turnout is to the extent people believe them,' Cox told the Online News Association conference in Hollywood. She added that blogs have made it more difficult for mainstream news organizations 'to sit on a story.'"
Associated Press. Do Blogs Change the News?. Wired News. Nov. 14, 2004.
See also:
Jeff Pelline. Big Media Getting Bigger. News.com. Nov. 14, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Analysts say a continued blurring of the lines between online, catalog and in-store shopping will be a big undercurrent of holiday shopping this year, as Web-based commerce turns 10 years old and takes a breather from the heady growth of its youth.
"Total Internet sales in 2004 are expected to jump by more than 20 percent over last year, claiming roughly 6 or 7 percent of all retail in the United States, according to analysts. Regular retail sales are projected to grow closer to 5 percent. For both, the year-end holidays are crucial.
"The latest Internet holiday sales forecast, released yesterday by ComScore Networks Inc., calls for consumers to spend more than $15 billion online in November and December, a jump of 23 percent to 26 percent over last year. Two other firms, JupiterResearch and Forrester Research, are forecasting Internet holiday sales to grow by 19 to 20 percent. A more bullish prediction of 29 percent growth comes from the online research firm eMarketer."
Leslie Walker. Holiday Forecast: Continued Growth Of Online Sales. Biz Report. Nov. 11, 2004.
See also:
Jon Swartz. Coming To A Mailbox Near You: An eBay Catalog. USA Today. Nov. 15, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Put away the red pen, because publishing software giant Adobe Systems plans to change the way businesses share comments on documents.
"The software maker is set to announce on Monday new versions of Acrobat and Reader, the company's main tools for creating and viewing files based on the PDF (Portable Document Format) standard.
"New features include expanded collaborative functions intended to improve the exchange of information between businesses and customers or partners."
David Becker. Adobe to Update PDF Tools. News.com. Nov. 14, 2004.
See also:
David Morgenstern. Adobe Beefs Up Acrobat Reader in Version 7.0. eWeek. Nov. 15, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The second day of meetings at the Federal Trade Commission's E-mail Authentication Summit began on a hopeful note Thursday, with FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz saying that, through a combination of new technologies and cooperation, spam can be defeated.
"But by the end of the day the consensus was that the goal would not in fact be reached. Still, Leibowitz made it clear that the commission plans to take whatever steps it can in the effort to get spam and related problems, including phishing and the distribution of worms and viruses, under control."
Wayne Rash. FTC on Spam: More Work to Be Done. eWeek. Nov. 12, 2004.
See also:
Grant Gross. E-mail Authentication: Cost, Standards Remain Problems. InfoWorld. Nov. 10, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"State and local homeland security IT programs would be more effective if the federal government provided firmer standards and practices, senior federal officials said recently.
"With 89,000 municipalities across the country trying to determine how to respond to domestic threats, state and local governments could use some help in coming up with ways to share homeland security information and communicate in an emergency.
"Speaking at a meeting last month, Homeland Security Department CIO Steve Cooper said he and Justice Department CIO Vance Hitch should provide additional leadership on technology issues."
Wilson P. Dizard III. Feds: We Must Set Sharing Policies. GCN.com. Nov. 8, 2004.
See also:
David Perera. OMB Plans Info-Sharing Initiative. FCW. Nov. 10, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"As part of its ongoing efforts to woo public sector customers, Microsoft Corp. has begun giving governments tools for collaborating and sharing technology information with other organizations so that they can learn from each other's experiences and cut development costs.
"Under a program titled the Solutions Sharing Network, Microsoft is helping provide public sector clients with a community-based portal for sharing best practices, application source codes, and other development information, it said Tuesday.
"The Redmond, Washington, software maker is providing interested public sector customers with the tools for free, but the client organizations are in charge of the content, maintenance and procuring of any necessary hardware, Microsoft said."
Scarlet Pruitt. Microsoft Offers Governments Sharing Tools. InfoWorld. Nov. 9, 2004.
See also:
Brian Robinson. Microsoft Starts Solutions Network. FCW. Nov. 9, 2004.
ElectricNews.net. Microsoft Opens E-gov Collaboration Portal. The Register. Nov. 10, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"LinkedIn, which focuses on connecting business professionals, plans to upgrade its interface as well as offer a set of paid services next year.
"Possible premium options include a better tool for finding job candidates and a more efficient way to find people who can comment on a potential hire or business partner, according to the company.
"For example, LinkedIn may enhance its search function to make it easier to find site members with a certain minimum number of years of experience. Recruiters should appreciate that feature, said LinkedIn co-founder Konstantin Guericke."
Ed Frauenheim and Michael Kanellos. LinkedIn Looks to Premium Services for Profit. News.com. Nov. 10, 2004.
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"While most executives on the hoof probably aren't yet quite brave enough to eschew their trusty notebook computers and forsake them in the docking station at their desks, they are also becoming more apt to slip one of the hottest new gadgets into their pocket: a so-called smart phone.
"Smart phones combine voice and data functions into a single device, allowing traveling workers to carry out some of their most common tasks in the palm of their hand without losing time waiting for a notebook to power up.
"The devices, which are available from manufacturers in conjunction with various cell-phone service providers, have come a long way from their predecessors that stored simple data like addresses and appointments."
Michael Paige. Savvy Travelers Have Smarter Phones. CBS Marketwatch. Nov. 11, 2004.
See also:
No author. E-Plus Introduces BlackBerry in Germany. CBS Marketwatch. Nov. 10, 2004.
Reuters. RIM Stays Mum on Patent Fight. News.com. Nov. 10, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"It's a rocky road from news to history. If you don't think so, just take a look at the entry for George W. Bush on Wikipedia, the collaborative online encyclopedia founded in 2001 by Larry Sanger, a philosophy lecturer at Ohio State University, and Jimmy Wales, an Internet entrepreneur.
"Wikipedia, maintained by users all over the world who write and edit the entries pretty much as they wish, is visited by hundreds of thousands of people daily and has an estimated 400,000 entries. There are no user fees and no advertising: the site is supported by the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation, based in Florida, which maintains and develops free resources, including a dictionary and a collection of quotations.
"To keep it all under control, contributors to the Wikipedia are instructed to adopt a neutral point of view. Not everyone obeys, though. So certain trusted, regular contributors and editors become administrators who oversee what is going on. But each one has a different view of that job. And that is where the fun begins."
Sarah Boxer. Mudslinging Weasels Into Online History. The New York Times. Nov. 10, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
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"Six Apart, provider of blogging software and hosting services, will work with online ad network Kanoodle to let bloggers add sponsored links to their content, the companies said on Tuesday.
"New York City-based Kanoodle serves cost-per-click ads into search results and content pages, using three targeting methods: keywords, context and behavior.
"Beginning late this year or early next year, subscribers to Six Apart's hosted TypePad blogging service can opt to include advertising with their content."
Susan Kuchinskas. Kanoodle 'Ads' Bloggers. InternetNews.com. Nov. 9, 2004.
See also:
Kevin Newcomb. TypePad Bloggers to Get Contextual Ads. ClickZNews. Nov. 9, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A Web standards body has published a series of definitions that could make it easier for big companies to share business documents.
"The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, or OASIS, on Monday gave final approval to a specification called Universal Business Language (UBL) version 1.0, a standardized document format.
"UBL is meant to make it easier to turn paper records into electronic ones and, ultimately, easier to share documents, such as purchase orders, between organizations doing business online. UBL is designed to work with commerce-related Extensible Markup Language (XML) and technical standards from OASIS called ebXML, which include a series of protocols for transporting information over the Internet."
Martin LaMonica. Web Business Standard Gets Thumbs Up. News.com. Nov. 9, 2004.
See also:
Paul Krill. Document Spec for E-commerce is Approved. InfoWorld. Nov. 8, 2004.
Clint Boulton. OASIS Blesses E-Document Standard. InternetNews.com. Nov. 8, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Having launched the much-awaited version 1.0 of the Firefox browser on Tuesday, the Mozilla Foundation is busy planning future enhancements to the open-source product, including the possibility of integrating it with a variety of desktop search tools.
"The Mozilla Foundation also wants to place Firefox in PCs through OEM (original equipment manufacturer) deals with PC hardware vendors and to continue to sharpen the product's pop-up ad blocking technology.
"These and other enhancements, such as graphics display improvements, will help Firefox to continue building the already considerable momentum it has generated so it can capture between 10 percent and 12 percent of the Web browser market by some point next year, said Chris Hofmann, the Mozilla Foundation's engineering director."
Juan Carlos Perez. Mozilla Considers Desktop Search Integration for Firefox. InfoWorld. Nov. 9, 2004.
See also:
Paul Festa. Firefox Maps Its Next Moves. News.com. Nov. 9, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"One of the most exciting aspects of blogging systems is that they have made it possible for many people to easily publish content to the Web without knowing HTML or web design.
"'With blogs and RSS feeds, content is updated in real time,' said Jeremy Zawodny of Yahoo! It is changing the way that people get their information from search engines; it is aggregating information. Since feeds are machine readable, there is no guessing game with constructing pages. The machine-readable nature makes this very precise and easy to work with.'
"Simple Syndication of blogs has shifted the choice of visible content over to site visitors. By using RSS feeds, blogs give visitors the ability to use blog aggregators such as Topix.net, Bloglines, Yahoo's blog aggregator or a desktop tool such as FeedDemon to view regular updates of their favorite blogs.
Mike Rende. Web Feeds, Blogs & Search Engines. Search Engine Watch. Oct. 28, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Eighty-five percent of e-government projects in developing countries fail either partially or fully, a World Bank official said.
"'It is estimated approximately 35 percent of e-government projects in developing countries are total failures and approximately 50 percent are partial failures,' said Robert Schware, World Bank lead informatics specialist.
"E-government refers to the use of information and communications technologies to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of government."
Agence France-Presse. Majority of E-Government Projects in Developing Nations Fail: World Bank. Yahoo! News. Nov. 5, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"To date, most enterprise social networking systems have had limited success in bridging the gap to customers. Vendors such as LinkedIn, Spoke Software and Visible Path have created enterprise social networking systems that enable users to navigate their personal networks to find a contact within a target prospective customer.
"Unfortunately, these systems are very 'one-way' in nature, benefiting the salesperson without necessarily providing any benefits to the individuals who are being contacted. As a result, some individuals have equated receiving inquiries from one of these networks as yet another new type of unsolicited commercial email, or spam.
In contrast, the enterprise social networking capabilities within AlwaysOn are very different. They enable customers (in this case, readers) to participate directly in the creation of the product. Readers can and do send messages directly to the authors of postings as well as each other, adding their affirmation or challenges to the site's content in real time."
Christopher Carfi. Social Networking Systems and Wikis Engage The Social Customer. IT Toolbox. Nov. 3, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The University of Albany's Center for Technology in Government is expanding its research to international governance with a new grant from the National Science Foundation.
"The center has focused on intergovernmental information sharing within the United States for the past two years through another NSF grant, but the additional $90,000 is for examining information technology innovation across governments on an international scale, according to officials."
Diane Frank. Researchers to Study International IT Innovation. FCW.com. Oct. 29, 2004.
See also:
Office of Government Commerce. Open Source Software Becoming Mainstream Says New Government Report. Oct. 28, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Customers visiting Apple Computer's online store can now post their own reviews of the products they buy--unless it's the latest iPod.
"That's because, though users can offer their takes on a variety of Mac and iPod gear from other companies, Apple automatically gives its own products a top '5-Apple' rating.
"Apple allows customers to assign their own ratings, from one to five stars to products from other companies, such as iPod cases and speakers. In a frequently asked questions page, Apple explains its thinking."
Ina Fried. Apple Store Takes Reviews--But Not of Its Own Stuff. News.com. Nov. 4, 2004.
See also:
Richard Shim and Ina Fried. PalmOne Ponders Microsoft, Linux Ooptions. News.com. Nov. 4, 2004.
Alorie Gilbert. At Posh Hotels, iPod a High-Tech Mint on the Pillow. News.com. Nov. 4, 2004.
Ina Fried. Apple Blocks Music Sales to Older iTunes. News.com. Nov. 3, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Robert West, the Homeland Security Department’s chief information security officer, made the rounds at an after-hours social event during a conference last summer. He met a federal air marshal eager to show him what was running on his wireless personal digital assistant.
"This is how they send me orders; this is how they tell me what airplane to get on,' the marshal told West, illustrating how wireless communication lets air marshals respond quickly to changing plans and last-minute threats. West was impressed but had a simple reply: 'That’s great, but our wireless policy right now is no wireless' because of security risks.
"DHS has since changed its policy to permit certified and accredited wireless networks. It also formed a wireless security working group to assess risk and identify secure methods of deploying wireless networks."
Brad Grimes. Secure at Last?. GCN.com. Oct. 25, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"It's finally over: President George W. Bush claimed victory in his re-election bid on Wednesday, a win that capped a tumultuous night of election results and propelled technology and other stocks higher.
"Coupled with the Republican gains in Congress, the results of the 2004 election offer the president a long-awaited opportunity to consolidate his grip on power in the nation's capital--a prospect that could, depending on the details, help or hurt the technology industry.
"Aside from a few spats about offshoring early in the year, technology topics have never been a priority for either Bush or Sen. John Kerry, his Democratic rival. But this week's results ensure that attitudes in Washington, D.C., toward broadband, spectrum management, taxes and Internet telephony will line up squarely behind Republican priorities through at least the midterm elections in 2006."
Declan McCullagh. Votes are Cast--Time to Count the Issues. News.com. Nov. 3, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A new take on the social networking phenomenon hopes to create online communities around specific brands. Outburst, a new marketing unit from digital media and tech firm POPstick, aims to leverage consumers' natural affinity for brands and allow marketers to communicate with those fans.
"POPstick describes its new service as 'social network marketing.' It offers an online dashboard through which brand loyalists can meet and share their enthusiasm for a given product or service. As with social networking services like Friendster, Orkut and LinkedIn, Outburst lets users create personalized profiles through which they interact with others.
"Outburst's components include a blog, discussion threads, small uploaded videos and interactive maps users can use to find brand-related events in their area."
Zachary Rodgers. POPstick Tries 'Social Network Marketing'. ClickZ News. Nov. 3, 2004.
"This issue of Wired magazine includes a copy of The Wired CD, a collection of 16 songs produced under the Creative Commons License. The licenses come from Creative Commons, the innovative nonprofit founded by Wired columnist and Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig.
"The songs on this CD use one of two Creative Commons licenses.The Noncommercial Sampling Plus license permits noncommercial file-sharing and noncommercial sampling. That means, first, that you can swap the songs on a peer-to-peer network (just don't sell them). And second, that you can sample from them, mash them up, use them to make something fresh - and then share that work, too (though again, you can't sell it). The Beastie Boys, Chuck D, and My Morning Jacket opted for the Noncommercial Sampling Plus license.
"The other 13 artists on the CD went a step further and released their songs under the more expansive Sampling Plus license. Like the noncommercial version, it allows file-sharing. But it also allows commercial use of samples - meaning you can insert a slice of these songs into your own composition and then try to sell the new track. The only restrictions: Use in advertisements is not permitted, and the new work must be 'highly transformative' of the original (translation: A flagrant rip-off like 'Ice Ice Baby' doesn't cut it)."
"More details on the licenses and their permissions are available at creativecommons.org/wired."
Thomas Goetz. Sample the Future. Wired. Nov. 2004.
See also:
Eric Steuer. The Remix Masters. Wired. Nov. 2004.
Hilary Rosen. How I Learned to Love Larry. Wired. Nov. 2004.
Julian Dibbell. We Pledge Allegiance to the Penguin. Wired. Nov. 2004.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"A smarter internet and a host of cheap, web-enabled mobile devices will allow access to a whole range of services on the move, research group Gartner Dataquest said on Sunday, ahead of its ITXpo symposium.
"A smarter internet means consumers can collaborate to pay for services costing just a few cents, making a whole range of new offerings viable.
"Navigation systems that now offer only a rudimentary selection of road services such as fuel stations and tourist sites are just a beginning. Mobile users will one day be shown the way to the nearest doctor on weekend duty."
Reuters. Smart Web Changes World. Wired News. Oct. 31, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The Homeland Security Department's inspector general has completed an information security audit of the agency, which shows DHS officials are still struggling with internal cybersecurity issues.
"The report, released Oct. 27, highlights areas in which DHS officials have improved the department's information security practices and policies. But the overall tone of the report is negative.
"The report cited the chief information officer's lack of authority to manage DHS' departmentwide information technology programs and spending as a significant factor in the department's struggle to secure its information systems. It stated that the absence of a formal reporting relationship between the CIO and the program organizations within the department continues to undermine DHS' information security program."
Florence Olsen. Report: DHS Has 'Significant Deficiency' in Info Security. FCW.com. Oct. 28, 2004.
Department of Homeland Security. Office of Inspector General. DHS IG: Evaluation of DHS' Information Security Program for Fiscal Year 2004. (.pdf). Sept. 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Webmail.us, which provides hosted e-mail service for small and medium-size businesses, will announce next week a raft of improvements to its service, including a major migration of its core e-mail platform from Microsoft Windows to an open source platform.
"Webmail.us, whose outsourced e-mail service is aimed at companies that have between five and 500 employees, adopted open source software to gain scalability, said Patrick Matthews, co-founder and chief executive officer of Webmail.us.
"'Using open source software allows us to tap into the open source community and move faster than with commercial manufacturers,' Matthews said. 'It helps us with long-term scalability, which is important because we're growing rapidly.'"
Juan Carlos Perez. Webmail Drops Windows for Open Source Platform. InfoWorld. Oct. 29, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Progress has little respect for innovation or technology. From their position of near ubiquity, fax machines are on a long slow decline.
"Pagers are about to go the same way, with phone firm O2 due to turn off its paging system at the end of 2004.
"And voicemail could be next, not least because it is a technology that a generation is simply not using."
Mark Ward. Voicemail Message is Getting Lost. BBC. Nov. 1, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"E-mail is one of the Internet's most mature applications, yet today's climate of tighter corporate regulatory controls and increased attacks from malicious and unsolicited mail sources is forcing administrators to look more closely at the way they're implementing this vital resource.
"Client-side message-filtering features of enterprise e-mail applications offer companies a great opportunity both to build smarter e-mail management solutions by taking advantage of their workers' knowledge and to help users get more out of e-mail by better organizing their mailboxes.
"However, while the most prominent mail clients available on Windows, Linux and Mac OS platforms offer message-filtering features, they all possess certain liabilities that have limited their use."
Jason Brooks. Sites Get the Message About E-Mail. eWeek. Nov. 1, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"From the early days of Howard Dean's online fund-raising success in his Democratic presidential run to the rise of influential political Webloggers, 2004 ranks as a standout year for the Internet's impact on politics -- so far at least.
"Perhaps the best symbol of the Internet's impact came through bloggers on the political process. This was the first year they earned media credentials to cover the Democratic and Republican conventions. The development helped raise the profile of already-popular bloggers, such as the DailyKos on the left and InstaPundit on the right.
"Sharing space in Tuesday's New York Times editorial pages is the Op-Ed headline The Revolution Will Be Posted. 'The commentary of bloggers - individuals or groups posting daily, hourly or second-by-second observations of and opinions on the campaign on their own Web sites - helped shape the 2004 race,' said the intro to the piece, which asked bloggers from all political stripes to comment on what they thought was the most important event."
Sean Michael Kerner. Year of The Political Blogger. InternetNews.com. Nov. 2, 2004.
See also:
Cynthia L. Webb. Bloggers Let Poll Cat Out of the Bag. WashingtonPost.com. Nov. 3, 2004.
Associated Press. Blogs Blamed for Exit Poll Fiasco. Wired News. Nov. 3, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"More and more people are jumping on the corporate weblogging bandwagon. At Microsoft Corp., for example, there are currently more than 1,000 blogs. Like many companies, especially the IT vendor companies where weblogs tend to proliferate, Microsoft encourages the informal sites as a way for its employees to stay close to customers.
"But as weblogs have multiplied, a number of legal issues have arisen, and regardless of whether your company sponsors its bloggers, it may be opening itself up to hidden liabilities.
"Here are some of the dangers of corporate blogging and precautions companies should consider."
Linda Rosencrance. Watch Your Weblog. Computerworld. Nov. 1, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"In one measure of their success, chart-topping rockers The Darkness have sold enough song downloads, T-shirts and thongs on their official Web site to nearly finance their next recording.
"British rock band Marillion has gone a step further. Since striking off on its own in 2000, the band has used its site to raise more than $913,200 (500,000 pounds) from fans to finance its last two albums and support its first North American tour since 1995.
"No serious band could function these days without a Web strategy. The Web site, once considered a vanity plate for the geekiest of pop stars, is essential to promote new releases, sell concert tickets and songs, and even fight off negative publicity."
Reuters. iTunes Aside, Web is Changing the Music Industry. News.com. Oct. 31, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Avaya, a communications software, systems and services company, has announced a new Internet Protocol-based video-conferencing offering for businesses. The Avaya Video Telephony Solution, Desktop Edition, (.pdf) stems from a partnership with conferencing technology specialist Polycom.
"The offering integrates the Avaya IP Softphone, an application that works as an office phone on a computer, with the Polycom ViaVideo camera and microphone. It also ties in instant messaging and presence features.
"Avaya and Polycom aimed for simplicity. Callers log on the business network (via a broadband or wireless LAN connection) and make video calls that can be muted, forwarded, transferred or placed on hold."
Colin C. Haley. Avaya, Polycom Dial in Videoconferencing. InternetNews.com. Nov. 1, 2004.
See also:
Ben Charny. New Videophone Highlights Dropping Prices. News.com. Nov. 1, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
Editor's Note: SNTReport.com has compiled the following online stories and resources so that our readers may follow the presidential election. This section will be updated throughout the afternoon and evening. We will return to our regular publication schedule on Wednesday, November 3.
SNTReport.com's Special Edition: Midday Presidential Election Coverage
Frank Barnako. Webloggers May Leak Exit Polls. CBS MarketWatch. Nov. 2, 2004.
Adam Penenberg. Calling the Election: A Primer. Wired News. Nov. 2, 2004.
Daniel Terdiman. Download Movies Before You Vote. Wired News. Nov. 2, 2004.
Jonathan Dube. Election Quick Links. Poynter Online. Nov. 2, 2004.
Yahoo News. Election Blog Roundup.
CNet's News.com. Election 2004.
Christian Science Monitor. Decision 2004. Nov. 2, 2004.
The New York Times. Election 2004.
Technorati. Election Watch 2004.
News.com & TechNet. Digital Agenda.
GOP.com. Gillespie's Blog.
Democratic National Committee. Kicking Ass: Daily Dispatches from the DNC.
The Official Kerry-Edwards Blog.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Microsoft plans to release in December new software designed to secure instant messaging and other communications within big companies.
"Microsoft said Tuesday that its Live Communications Server 2005 software will let companies encrypt their instant-messaging communications internally and link IM systems between companies so that suppliers and other business partners can share secure IM connections.
"Live Communications Server, or LCS, will include an option for letting companies link to public instant-messaging networks from Microsoft, America Online and Yahoo, so that employees can chat with users on the Big Three IM services."
Mike Ricciuti. Microsoft Logs On to Secure Corporate IM. News.com. Oct. 26, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Wired Americans hear more points of view about candidates and key issues than other citizens. They are not using the internet to screen out ideas with which they disagree.
"This is significant because prominent commentators have expressed concern that growing use of the internet would be harmful to democratic deliberation.
"The new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in collaboration with the University of Michigan School of Information shows that internet users have greater overall exposure political arguments, including those that challenge their candidate preferences and their positions on some key issues."
Pew Internet & American Life Project. The Internet and Democratic Debate. Oct. 27, 2004.
John Horrigan, Kelly Garrett, Paul Resnick. The Internet and Democratic Debate. (.pdf). Pew Internet & American Life Project and the University of Michigan School of Information. Oct. 27, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Blog Search Engine and IceRocket Search have partnered to bring cell phone pic blogs, or MoBlogs, into the search engine world with a new search feature which produces image results of the latest MoBlogs images available.
"Blog Search Engine has over 10,000 blogs indexed in its blog directory and this new feature gives them a jump on other cutting edge search engines in the blogging world.
"The partnership between the two companies utilizes IceRocket search technology to serve search results from TextAmerica blog entries - a MoBlog only blog hosting service."
No author. Blog Search Engine Adds MoBlog Search. Search Engine Journal. Oct. 29, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Here's a thought: A blogger might be the first to announce the winner of Tuesday's election.
"Pure speculation on my part, of course, but is it so crazy a guess? News organizations now abide by an agreement not to project a winner until after the polls close on the West Coast. The folks who conduct exit polling usually have a pretty good idea which candidate is going to come out on top.
"That information is closely held. Four years ago, blogging had yet to burst upon the mainstream. Even if an insider wanted to spill the goods, the blogosphere did not figure on the Official Leaker's short list.
"Things are a lot different this election cycle. "
Charles Cooper. Political Jihads and the Blogosphere. News.com. Oct. 29, 2004.
See also:
John Borland. Blogs Play Critical Role in Campaigns. News.com. Nov. 1, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"It has no editors, no fact checkers and anyone can contribute an entry - or delete one. It should have been a recipe for disaster, but instead Wikipedia became one of the internet's most inspiring success stories. It might seem like anarchy. And, given the lack of central control, it technically is. However, there are three elements that make it work.
"The first is its ownership, and lack of commercial imperative. The site is manned by volunteers, and now owned by a foundation, which means people willingly give their time and intellectual property to the venture. It manages to run on less than $100,000 a year.
"The second is that the overriding editorial principle that all articles should show a "Neutral point of view' (NpoV). According to Wales, this is as much 'a social technique for getting people to work together" as it is an editorial policy.
"The third - and perhaps most critical - has been the evolution of an incredibly intricate and democratic social order to keep this vast sprawling project in order."
Simon Waldman. Who Knows?. The Guardian. Oct. 26, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Despite excitement over RFID technology and its future promise, most companies currently lack a business case to adopt it anytime soon.
"It’s hard to deny that radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is hot. Major retailers, such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy in the United States and Metro Group in Germany, have established full-fledged programs in which some or all of their suppliers will be required to put chip-driven tags on product pallets or cases, so shipments can be better tracked from warehouse to store shelf.
"These tracking applications, and similar ones developed by the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Boeing, and Airbus, to name a few of the organizations using this technology, hint at the beginnings of a critical mass for RFID.
"But reality often belies excitement. Our survey suggests that there is significant ambivalence among companies about RFID technology."
Stefan Stroh and Jürgen Ringbeck. Thinking Outside the Closed Loop. Strategy+Business. Oct. 28, 2004.
See also:
No author. RFID-Chips. SAP. Feb. 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The United States faces a brave new world in which terrorism and technology are merged, former Defense Department Secretary William Cohen said today.
"Speaking to the Executive Leadership Conference meeting, Cohen said U.S. officials 'got lazy. We dropped our guard.... We made assumptions that no one would dare attack us on our homeland.' Now, he said, U.S. officials must work to integrate systems during a siege rather than making a slow and careful transition.
"Cohen said he believes the war against terrorists must be won with not only military force but also good policies, information sharing and collaboration with officials in other countries."
Judi Hasson. Cohen Promotes Info Sharing. FCW.com. Oct. 25, 2004.
See also:
Patience Wait. Cohen Backs Info Sharing, Police Work in Beating Back Terror Threats. GCN.com. Oct. 25, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Software guru -- and inventive Boston Red Sox fan -- Ray Ozzie has a method for keeping fans productive as the team continues its quest to reverse baseball's most notorious curse.
"His company, Groove Networks, has started a special World Series promotion that will allow Red Sox Nation to work at home after those late nights glued to the tube. Customers can get a free trial and discount on its Groove Virtual Office software. The software will allow employees to combat what Groove calls Playoff Exhaustion Syndrome by sleeping in a little bit and working from home."
News.com. Groove Pitches in for Red Sox Nation. Oct. 22, 2004.
See also:
Groove Networks. Groove Networks Offers World Series Promotion To Red Sox Nation. Oct. 22, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Yahoo and Adobe have formed a partnership to attempt to keep pace with Google and Microsoft in the search arena.
"Under the deal, Adobe is adding a toolbar to its Acrobat software that will link to various Yahoo online resources including its search engine, its pop-up blocker and its anti-spyware software.
"The toolbar will also link to a Web-based service called Create Adobe PDF Online, which aims to help consumers and small businesses to create PDF files."
Graeme Wearden. Yahoo and Adobe Ally on Search. ZDNet UK. Oct. 25, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Jimmy Wales, 38, a computer programmer in St. Petersburg, Fla., is trying to make the entire concept of a printed reference book obsolete. Three years ago he created the Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia that draws articles not from a sequestered brain trust of academics but from the great unwashed: thousands of Internet users around the world who freely add to and edit the site. It's one part reference tool, one part fascinating social experiment.
"Wikipedia just roared past 1 million total articles (300,000 in English, the rest mostly in 40 other languages), making it the world's largest encyclopedia—three times the size of the 233-year-old Britannica.
"Wales is also expanding into projects like the Wiktionary (a dictionary and thesaurus), Wikibooks (textbooks and manuals) and Wikiquote(quotations). The goal: to give 'every single person free access to the sum of all human knowledge.'"
Brad Stone. It's Like a Blog, But It's a Wiki. Newsweek. Nov. 1, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"As the election season reaches its peak, Silicon Valley is using its technical know-how and money to try to change politics in the same way it reinvented commerce -- by harnessing the Internet's ability to take advantage of and grow social networks from the bottom up.
"The founders of dot-com hit HotOrNot, which allows users to rate strangers' looks on a scale of one to 10, last month launched the nonpartisan VoteOrNot, a voter registration site that is running a $100,000 sweepstakes to entice newcomers.
"Slashdot, a Web site that bills itself as offering 'news for nerds,' for the first time has put together a politics section to encourage discussion of tech-tinged campaign issues.
"Bay Area Dems, 'BAD,' was founded on the dot-com philosophy of not dismissing even the smallest players because they may become the next new thing. Their meet-and-greets, which concentrate on small donors, have drawn some prominent politicians."
Ariana Eunjung Cha. Grass-Roots Politics With Click of a Mouse. WashingtonPost.com. Oct. 25, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Mercent said Friday that it will handle e-commerce operations on Amazon.com for clothes maker Guess.
"The deal marks the third time in recent weeks that Mercent has landed new business as a Web services intermediary (WSI) for an established consumer products vendor.
"The company recently signed similar deals with automotive accessories retailer Car Toys, and bath and body products maker Crabtree & Evelyn, to facilitate the use of Amazon's e-commerce tools."
Matt Hines. Mercent to Help Guess Sell on Amazon. News.com. Oct. 22, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"PDA? No, EDA. Mobile-solutions provider Symbol Technologies announced the MC50 family of handheld PCs, which it dubbed 'enterprise digital assistants' because of their barcode-scanning and VoIP features.
"The combination of barcode/image-capture capabilities and built-in voice-over-IP technology is ideal for mobile workers who need real-time access to people and information, Symbol said.
"For example, a retail manager could monitor and manage merchandise pricing and availability from the sales floor. An IT manager could oversee the maintenance of enterprise technology assets, such as server farms and data-storage facilities."
Rick Broida. PDAs Incorporate Barcode Scanning, VoIP. ZDNet. Oct. 19, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"When comedian Jon Stewart blasted the hosts of CNN's 'Crossfire' on the cable TV program, he ignited a frenzy of online activity.
On Friday night, the star of Comedy Central's 'The Daily Show with Jon Stewart' angered his 'Crossfire' hosts Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala, saying they promote partisan political debate. The online transcript and video clips of the program immediately became an overnight sensation among Web surfers, bloggers and pundits alike.
As of midday Tuesday, online video hosting site IFilm said, more than 670,000 people had downloaded the CNN clip from its site. The clip runs for about 13 minutes.
Matt Hines. Jon Stewart 'Crossfire' Feud Ignites Net Frenzy. News.com. Oct. 19, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Twenty-six percent of adult internet users in the U.S. have rated a product, service, or person using an online rating system.
"These systems, also referred to as 'reputation systems,' are interactive word-of-mouth networks that assist people in making decisions about which users to trust, or to compare their opinions with the opinions expressed by others. Many Web sites utilize some form of this application, including eBay, Amazon, Moviefone and Amihot.
"A nationwide phone survey of 1,399 internet users from May 14-June 17 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project showed that 29% of male internet users and 22% of female internet users have rated something online."
Pew Internet and American Life Project. 33 Million American Internet Users Have Reviewed or Rated Someone or Something as Part of an Online Rating System. Oct. 20, 2004.
Lee Rainie and Paul Hitlin. Use of Online Rating Systems. (.pdf) Pew Internet and American Life Project. Oct. 20, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Federal CIO Web pages reflect diverse ideas about the Web as a communications platform.
"Chief information officers may set the standards that govern agency employees' use of the Web to provide information and services, but they are not necessarily the standard-bearers for their own offices' Web pages. As in many agencies, CIOs have different ideas about whom their Web pages should serve and the information they should provide.
"The natural assumption is that CIOs would make good use of the Web to share information with staff, vendors and other stakeholders. But the sophistication of those Web sites varies dramatically: Some detail project plans online while others have only static information pages, experts said."
Sara Michael. Finetuning Needed. FCW. Oct. 18, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Microsoft Corp. announced an early beta of a new rich client for its Live Communications Server product designed to unite instant messaging with telephony and video, and to embed such technologies in other applications.
"Code-named 'Istanbul,' the company is demonstrating the new Office-based technology at the Fall 2004 VON conference here this week and seeking testers for a managed beta program.
"Istanbul will replace Windows Messenger as the preferred client for Live Communications Server, though Windows Messenger will continue to be included within the Windows operating system, Microsoft officials said."
Dennis Callaghan. Microsoft Adds Voice, Video to IM Client. eWeek. Oct. 19, 2004.
See also:
Juan Carlos Perez. Microsoft Announces LCS Client. Computerworld. Oct. 19, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"PalmOne has licensed technology from Microsoft to make its devices work directly with Microsoft's Exchange e-mail server.
"With the support for Microsoft's Exchange Server ActiveSync protocol, users of PalmOne devices will no longer need to install third-party client and server software to be able to access e-mail, calendar and contact information on a server running Microsoft's Exchange Server 2003 software, said Steve Janiak, a senior product manager at PalmOne."
Joris Evers. PalmOne Licenses Microsoft Exchange for Mobile E-mail. InfoWorld. Oct. 5, 2004.
See also:
Microsoft Corp. palmOne Licenses Microsoft Exchange Server Synchronization Protocol for Integration With Next-Generation Treo Smartphones. Oct. 5, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The term 'social software', which is now used to define software that supports group interaction, has only become relatively popular within the last two or more years. However, the core ideas of social software itself enjoy a much longer history, running back to Vannevar Bush's ideas about 'memex' in 1945, and traveling through terms such as Augmentation, Groupware, and CSCW in the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s.
"By examining the many terms used to describe today's 'social software' we can also explore the origins of social software itself, and see how there exists a very real life cycle concerning the use of technical terminology."
Life with Alacrity. Tracing the Evolution of Social Software. Oct. 13, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Wikis, touted as the next big thing in online content, have become the latest battleground in the presidential election as users of online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the best-known wiki, squabble over entries related to President George W. Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry, the junior senator from Massachusetts.
"Disputes over content related to Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry have been growing since August, prompting the popular reference site’s administrators to warn users last month that election-related entries may be the focus of 'contention and debate – possibly diminishing their neutrality.
"Wikipedia community members held an online town hall meeting last month to try to solve the disputes over the entries, to no avail."
No author. Wiki Wars. Red Herring. Oct. 14, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"Representatives from worldwide governments, including the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, are meeting in London this week to discuss how a united front can help to crack down on the problem of unsolicited bulk e-mail.
"The initiative represents the latest in a string of events regarding spam, which to date have yielded little result and little agreement on the best approach.
"John Vickers, chairman of the Office of Fair Trading that is hosting the event, urged the industry, the media and average e-mail users to hold off on cynicism about this most recent initiative until its effect has been witnessed."
Will Sturgeon. Britain, U.S. Talk Up Spam Fight. News.com. Oct. 11, 2004.
See also:
No author. Call For Global Action on Spam. BBC. Oct. 11, 2004.
Office of Fair Trading. International Agencies Join Forces to Combat Spam. Oct. 11, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
"The U.S. presidential campaign between President Bush and John Kerry has prompted a frenzy of gossip and conspiracy theories among Internet bloggers.
"As Bush and the Massachusetts senator slug it out in a neck-and-neck race ahead of the Nov. 2 election, partisan bloggers have flooded the Internet with alternative views about both candidates, which they hope will help sway voters.
"Media watchers say much of the gossip on the Internet is as loony as supermarket tabloid stories claiming Elvis Presley lives, but that it still has a role to play in the campaign."
Reuters. Presidential Race Sets Blogs Ablaze. News.com. Oct. 11, 2004.
'PC makers, working with Microsoft, set course for consumers' living rooms on Tuesday, launching a slew of new Media Center PCs.
"Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, Sony and Toshiba all introduced their latest Media Center PCs, wrapped around Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center 2005 operating system. The latest version of the multimedia-oriented OS features a special user interface for tasks such as playing movies.
"While the latest Media Centers are PCs at heart, the manufacturers say the machines will function more like entertainment devices that can record, show TV programs, and play DVD movies or music CDs. However, unlike before, the machines will be more adept at acquiring and sharing files with other devices around the home."
John G. Spooner. Media Centers on parade. News.com. Oct. 12, 2004.
See also:
Microsoft. Microsoft and Partners Announce New Era of Digital Devices Enabling Consumers to Take Entertainment Throughout the Home and On the Go. Oct. 12, 2004.
Jennifer LeClaire. Gates Launches New Era with XP Media Center 2005. E-Commerce Times. Oct. 12, 2004.
Harry McCracken. Digital Entertainment Anywhere. PCWorld Techlog. Oct. 12, 2004.
"Many organizations might be missing out on the benefits of open source software (OSS) because they simply don't understand how it can benefit their enterprise.
"CIOs and IT departments that see the benefits of exploiting OSS are often put off by the ongoing debates about risk, licensing, support and maturity of open source. And, those organizations that do explore OSS, often employ a misguided one-size-fits-all approach to evaluation, selection, utilization and management within the company.
"This type of thinking about OSS is causing many IT organizations to miss out on the ongoing practical value that can be realized from using what is now a vast and diverse toolkit of useful software components."
Cyndi Mitchell. Understanding Open Source. CIO Update. Oct. 8, 2004.
"Union organizers used to hand out leaflets in the cafeteria or on the factory floor. Today, they try to pass them out in cyberspace. It's a change that could reshape decades-old labor laws.
"The issue is highlighted in a case before the National Labor Relations Board involving Agilent Technologies. In a complaint now being investigated by the NLRB, an Agilent worker alleges the company violated federal labor laws when it prevented him from using its electronic newsletter to unionize co-workers.
"At the heart of the debate is whether a pro-union notice on a company's electronic newsletter is any different than a leaflet posted on a bulletin board in a cafeteria."
K. Oanh Ha. Digital World Muddles Labor Laws. San Jose Mercury News. Oct. 10, 2004.
"First in phone-company marketing, and now in popular culture, the cellular phone has taken on the aura of an amulet of safety, an indispensable lifeline: wherever you are, you can always reach help.
"The new movie 'Cellular' is all about the cellphone as savior. Kim Basinger plays a woman who is abducted and taken to an attic, where there is an old rotary-dial phone that her captor proceeds to smash with a bat.
"Though the surfer must overcome weak cellular signals and dying batteries along with the more generic sorts of movie-plot crises, the mobile phone is clearly meant to be the hero of the piece, trumping fusty old fixed-line telephony in nearly every way.
"But the notion is stretched so far in the film that it raises some contrarian questions: Is the sense of security engendered by a cellphone as much illusion as reality? Does carrying one make people better at coping with the world, or worse? Is it a lifeline or an apron string?"
Ken Belson. Saved, and Enslaved, by the Cell. The New York Times. Oct. 10, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
"Getting rights OK'd can be frustrating for artists, be they authors seeking to quote an essay or documentary filmmakers who've got snippets of pop songs playing in the background of key scenes. Artists and scholars who believe the current copyright system unduly stifles creativity are pushing a less restrictive alternative that they call the Creative Commons.
"Driving the movement is the belief that we all benefit when creative minds are free to expand upon others' work — that public discourse is hurt when too much of it is weighed down by the baggage of commerce.
"'The (Creative) Commons encourages sharing and makes explicit that creativity depends on easy access to raw materials,' said Siva Vaidhyanathan, a New York University professor critical of current copyright laws. 'Right now, you have to assume you're going to get in trouble if you quote from somebody extensively or build upon a previous expression.'"
Anick Jesdanun. Movement Seeks Copyright Alternatives. Yahoo! News. Oct. 10, 2004.
"The co-founders of early search engine and portal Excite.com are bringing a new concept to the Web: the wiki as an application development platform.
"JotSpot Inc., the brainchild of Joe Kraus and Graham Spencer, was unveiled here on Wednesday during the Web 2.0 conference and began offering invitation-only access to a beta of its hosted wiki.
"JotSpot combines more typical wiki functions— collaborative editing, version control, support for attachments and full-text search—with a tool for writing applications and tying together outside data from RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds, e-mail and Web pages.
Matt Hicks. Startup Turns Wikis into Development Platform. eWeek. Oct. 6, 2004.
See also:
Rob Hof. Do-It-Yourself Software for All?. BusinessWeek Online. Oct. 6, 2004.
"Microsoft Corp. is expanding its efforts to move from a 'trade secrets' company to one that banks on sharing its intellectual property (IP) and benefits from being seen as a more cooperative and open-industry player.
"Almost a year after announcing a new IP licensing policy and the formal licensing of two technologies, the software giant is set to announce new formal program licenses within the next two months, according to David Kaefer, director of business development, for Microsoft's Intellectual Property and Licensing Group.
"The move comes amid an overall effort to even up the amount of technologies the company offers through licensing and those it licenses."
Scarlet Pruitt. Microsoft Opens IP in Licensing Push. InfoWorld. Oct. 8, 2004.
"It's only been a decade since the first decent Web browser began transforming the Net from something cherished only by Star Trek fans with modems the size of shoeboxes to something your mother uses.
"Yet the Annenbergers report that three quarters of all Americans have access to the Internet, spending an average of twelve-and-a-half hours a week online. Netheads abound in every age range, but for those between 12 and 18, usage approaches 100 percent.
"Though e-mail is still the No. 1 activity, the study concludes that the Net has profoundly changed the way we spend money, keep in touch with our friends and get information (Internet users use the medium as their No. 1 source of news, despite worries about credibility). For millions, it's as essential as air."
Steven Levy. No Net? We'd Rather Go Without Food.. Newsweek Oct. 11, 2004.
"Google confirmed that the founder of its blog unit is leaving the company.
"Evan Williams, who launched Pyra Labs in 1999 to facilitate other people's Web logs, announced his imminent departure from Google--appropriately enough--in a blog posting.
"In his post, he anticipated speculation about an acquisition gone awry and denied any ill will against the company."
Paul Festa. Blogger founder leaves Google. News.com. Oct. 5, 2004.
See also:
Matt Hicks. Blogger Boss to Leave Google. eWeek. Oct. 5, 2004.
"Network news anchors are taking off their gloves as they go toe to toe with Internet bloggers.
"At a panel discussion sponsored by The New Yorker magazine on Saturday in New York, NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw and ABC anchor Peter Jennings lashed out at Internet bloggers in defense of CBS anchor Dan Rather, according to reports from the Associated Press and Reuters.
"Brokaw compared the bloggers' attacks on Rather's '60 Minutes II' report about President Bush's National Guard service to a 'political jihad.'"
Marguerite Reardon. Network TV Bigwigs Rail Against Bloggers. News.com. Oct. 4, 2004.
See also:
Paul J. Gough. Rivals Rally to Rather's Side. Reuters. Oct. 3, 2004.
Deepti Hajela. Brokaw, Jennings Show Support for Rather. Observer-Reporter. Oct. 3, 2004.
Staci D. Kramer. CBS Scandal Highlights Tension Between Bloggers and News Media. Online Journalism Review. Oct. 4, 2004.
"Why is Meetup.com so alone?
"In nearly every Internet category imaginable, successful sites have triggered copycats, sometimes by the dozens. But Meetup, which has helped more than 30,000 groups - including knitters, Republicans and pug owners - organize online and meet offline in the last two years, and has earned a following among technology's elite, remains virtually without competition.
"So far, Meetup has signed up roughly two million users who rely on it to help find people with similar political or business interests or hobbies.
"Meetup is announcing a revamped version of its Web site today that its executives hope will position it for further growth - continues to operate as if it is being pursued by the competition."
Bob Tedeschi. Meeting Site Stands Nearly Alone. The New York Times. Oct. 4, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
"Today, online social networks are gaining favor nationwide as a way to turbocharge your existing face-to-face network and extend your reach into new industries and even internationally. By joining the networks, users have more personal control over whom they are in contact with than those who indiscriminately send or receive blasts of e-mail.
"Since California-based Friendster Inc. launched in 2002, millions of 20-somethings have signed themselves up and invited their friends to sign up in what has become a massive online community of friends helping friends get dates.
"The business versions, namely LinkedIn and Ryze, operate in similar fashion, but with a different demographic and extra layers of privacy."
Jane Larson. Business Networking is Flourishing Online. IndyStar.com. Oct. 4, 2004.
"It's not unusual for teachers and students to use an online environment like a chat room to meet. But a few college professors are taking advantage of Second Life's fully three-dimensional virtual world and are the first to teach classes in a world where the students can fly, change body types at will and build fantastical structures that can float in the sky.
"Second Life is one of a number of so-called massively multiplayer online games. Linden Lab charges a monthly fee of $10 for access to an open-ended virtual world with a developed economy, neighborhoods and communities, all manner of vehicles and the ability to create nearly anything imaginable.
"But Second Life is also an ideal environment for students, and that for the most part, they've integrated well into the larger community."
Daniel Terdiman. Campus Life Comes to Second Life. Wired News. Sept. 24, 2004.
"A select group of testers next week will get an early look at MSN Messenger 7.0, the next version of Microsoft's popular instant messaging client.
"According to Brooke Richardson, lead product manager for MSN at Microsoft, MSN Messenger 7.0 will offer users a more personalized messaging experience, Richardson says.
"Additionally, Microsoft will promote other MSN services, especially MSN Search, in the client and is testing transactional services that allow users to purchase additional features such as special emoticons, the smiley faces and other icons that indicate emotions, she says."
Joris Evers. Microsoft Tests MSN Messenger 7.0. PCWorld. Oct. 1, 2004.
Update: Joris Evers.Security Concerns Shelve MSN Messenger 7. PCWorld. Oct. 7, 2004. (Microsoft has suspended the beta testing due to a potential security problem.)
"Blog enthusiasts are excellent evangelist candidates. They're early adopters. Often, they're serial buzz spreaders, and they can funnel waves of others just like them toward your blog and your organization, especially if it's a small business.
"B2C or B2B? Doesn't matter. Companies that sell primarily to other companies may find that a blog more easily bridges the feedback loop between end customers and channels. That bridge is often missing or difficult to create using existing tools—like focus groups, or the telephone.
"Blog enthusiasts are excellent evangelist candidates. They're early adopters. Often, they're serial buzz spreaders, and they can funnel waves of others just like them toward your blog and your organization, especially if it's a small business.
"B2C or B2B? Doesn't matter. Companies that sell primarily to other companies may find that a blog more easily bridges the feedback loop between end customers and channels. That bridge is often missing or difficult to create using existing tools—like focus groups, or the telephone.
"For any organization, a blog is part of a long-term customer evangelism strategy."
Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba. Seven Reasons Why Businesses Should Blog Now. MarketingProfs.com. Sept. 28, 2004.
"Gary Feldman was vice president of strategic planning at a Manhattan marketing and advertising agency, when he received an e-mail message last spring from HotJobs.com listing opportunities that might be of interest to him. Although he rarely gave such notices a second glance, he said, a position as director in the New York office of the marketing research and consulting firm Cheskin caught his eye. He followed a link to the company's Web log, or blog, and read the job description.
"It wasn't typical, it was cool,' Mr. Feldman said. 'It sounded like the person who wrote it really knew what the job was and understood the business. It was written by someone you would want to talk to.'
"The blog entries of others at Cheskin intrigued him. 'I got the sense this was a company where the employees really enjoyed their work,' said Mr. Feldman, who was hired in June. 'If I had not read the blog I doubt I would have applied.'"
Eilene Zimmerman. Before Applying, Check Out the Blogs. The New York Times. Oct. 3, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
"Officials in the intelligence community have started several initiatives related to information technology tagging, collaboration and acquisition to improve data-sharing among personnel of all security levels.
"They believe data can be published after information about how it was acquired is removed.
"They also started a program so members of the intelligence community can communicate via instant messaging."
Frank Tiboni. Spies Work on Info Sharing. FCW. Sept. 30, 2004.
"News feed aggregator NewsGator Technologies has struck new partnerships to expand its enterprise sales and tie its online service with other desktop newsreaders.
"NewsGator on Wednesday announced a co-marketing agreement with Six Apart Ltd., one of the leading makers of Weblog software, and integration of subscription information from its Web-based aggregation service with FeedDemon, a leading Windows desktop reader.
"The deal with San Mateo, Calif.-based Six Apart reflects both companies' increasing focus on selling to enterprise customers, who often want a tool for consuming feeds as well as one to create blogs."
Matt Hicks. NewsGator Gains Partners to Extend RSS Reach. eWeek. Sept. 29, 2004.
"Future online entrepreneurs could log on to see business plans, marketing documents, and other documents from dot-coms launched in the '90s.
"All those failed startups from the dot-com boom live on in a the University of Maryland's two-year-old Business Plan Archive containing dot-com business plans and marketing documents.
"The archives' lead researcher, David Kirsch, says the archive will be a useful tool in understanding what happened in the 1990s, but also in understanding online-business fundamentals.
"According to Kirsch, it is the failed companies whose documents are endangered that interest us and we want to save them so that today's entrepreneurs learn from the mistakes."
David Gardner. Building A Database Of Dot-Com Failures. Information Week. Sept. 30, 2004.
"Earlier than scheduled, Microsoft Corp. has gone public with its announcement of its third open-source code contribution to SourceForge. Microsoft's mystery contribution? FlexWiki.
"Late Monday evening, SourceForge posted information on Microsoft's FlexWiki code to its software repository.
"FlexWiki is an experimental collaboration tool based on WikiWiki, which is a tool for collaborating on common Web pages."
Mary Jo Foley. FlexWiki: Microsoft's Third Open Software Project. eWeek. Sept. 28,2004.
Editor's Note: For this edition of Connections, we are pleased to feature an interview with Gary Roberts, the Information Systems Librarian at the Herrick Memorial Library at Alfred University in upstate New York. Earlier this year, Syracuse University's School of Information Studies named Gary the winner of its second 21st Century New Librarian Award. Gary received the award for his outstanding contributions to Herrick, including the use of library database-driven Web sites and the library's comprehensive Journal Locator.
Gary succceeds SNTReport.com Executive Editor K. Matthew Dames as the 21st Century New Librarian Award winner.
Gary joined Herrick's staff after graduating in 1999 from the School of Informatics at the University at Buffalo. His professional research has focused on how smaller libraries can fully-utilize technology through collaboration, publication and resource sharing. Gary also has researched the benefits of combining online information literacy tutorials with course management systems to support comprehensive information literacy programs.
As he will reveal in the interview below, Gary is a strong proponent of using social software to improve how and where librarians provide services to their customers.
Gary will receive his award in a brunch ceremony in Syracuse on Sunday, October 10. Recently, SNTReport.com writer Carol Schwartz interviewed Gary to discuss several topics, including how he uses social software tools to improve work and digital collaboration efforts between Herrick's librarians and the University's students, staff and faculty.
SNTReport.com: What type of research have you been conducting involving social software?
Roberts: I have been focusing on information literacy, which is the ability of people to identify when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and effectively use the needed information. It is an essential skill in a technology-based world where the library and traditional publishing model is no longer the only source of credible information dissemination.
SNTReport.com: How has your library been incorporating technology?
Roberts: We are focusing on the use of technology to leverage the abilities of the library to meet the needs of the students and effectively use personnel to get where the students are, which is online. Librarians have traditionally been comfortable with asynchronous software, not synchronous software such as instant messaging or chat -- which requires them to speak on the spot. Students are more comfortable with using "technology on the fly" and do not necessarily want or need detail. It is a challenge to move toward the student's level.
Librarians are information sharers by profession, and it is part of our culture to document as much as possible and demonstrate best practices. We have to be careful about keeping the students coming back, we try to go with what they think they need. Ultimately with higher broadband, Internet II, VoIP, and streaming video, we may see an increased comfort and ability [to serve] another generation.
Additionally, we are using the tools to help out with information literacy. A lot of tools become essential when working with a small school. Budgets are decreasing and we have to work smarter using technology. We have a lot of resources on campus and we are leveraging existing knowledge without going out and spending lots of money.
SNTReport.com: What types of tools do you use for information literacy?
Roberts: We are using both personal management tools and course management tools. We use Outlook Exchange for a personal management information system. It is a client-server model and combines a calendar for scheduling and email contacts. We also have an Intranet that it is web-based containing archival knowledge. For course management, we use web-based Blackboard for storing knowledge about courses and specific projects. Literacy is time intensive; it takes time to set up tools. We utilize existing tools that are commercially available.
Small institutions are able to leverage their investment in available course management systems without having to implement technology-intensive authentication systems. Many librarians have expanded and are using personal digital assistants (PDAs) that feature the Palm operating system. The PDA becomes an extension to handle details, and can be used to connect via a USB connection and sync with the information management system. For example, my PDA buzzed to remind me that you would be calling at this time for this interview. I had the interview scheduled in Outlook Exchange and downloaded my schedule information to my PDA for when I was not at the library.
The PDA facilitates efficiency utilizing knowledge of 100 years of collaboration. All of the tools that we use facilitate communication and workflow allowing us to do more with less.
Alfred University is thinking about using Vonage and using broadband for chat and synchronous communication. Synchronous communication is more friendly and the 'human touch' is still very important. Communication would involve one-to-one or one-to-several. Inquiries are typed into the computer, making for formalized communication. Chat is not formalized. We cannot use the same rules in chat that we use for email because the communication is not being archived.
Further, librarians are becoming more comfortable with video conferencing. The up-front time saves down the line since it is available inexpensively. Five years ago videoconferencing was either too expensive or the technology was impossible without the infrastructure in place; now it is much more commonplace.
SNTReport.com: Do you find your students turning toward the Web more often for information?
Roberts: There are commercial venues available such as Google, Amazon, News, and Entertainment portals. Librarians do not see them as competitors. Libraries beat them at their own game because we have content; we are the ones with the collections. Google does a better job with delivery, going where the patrons are. We have to look at the design and indexing methods that Google is using since students are attracted by the delivery methods.
SNTReport.com: Could you tell me about your Library IT Blog?
Roberts: My blog is an area to share "nuts and bolts" for other plans. It contains a little more content than listserv. Ultimately, I use it to post content for collaboration, but I don't necessarily post daily. It is an area to build an archive of what I am doing and what others are doing. Blogs take less time than publishing. I post when I have something to help others. The use of blogs depends on how you use the tool, at first they were cool, now they seem cheesy.
SNTReport.com: How does your library and IT department coordinate activities?
Roberts: Our university librarian is also the Vice President of Information Technology. We are able to keep the information flow going between both departments. More and more there is less of a distinction between IT and the library. As the knowledge base grows, the areas overlap. IT people have a better understanding of the hardware. We have a similar understanding of how thing work together and utilize core competencies. We collaborate and do not build walls.
"For the second year in a row, researchers at Brown University have ranked the Mile High City number one for delivery of information and services over the Internet.
"The researchers examined the electronic-government efforts of the nation’s 70 largest city governments. Rounding out the top five were San Diego, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. At the bottom of the rankings were Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Greenville, S.C., Syracuse and West Palm Beach.
"On the state level, Tennessee, Maine, Utah, New York and Illinois top the states in providing e-government services. West Virginia, Mississippi, Wyoming, Nebraska and New Mexico were at the bottom of the 2004 rankings."
Denver Still No. 1 in E-Gov. Governing.com. Sept. 27, 2004.
See also:
Brown University. Urban E-Government, 2004. InsidePolitics.org. Sept. 2004.
"Bloggers are helping set the election news agenda, the Internet has helped candidates raise record amounts of cash, and newspaper Web sites are helping the Old Media interact with readers like never before.
"A week after the election, the Online News Association will help you make sense of it all. This year, the ONA presents a stellar slate of high-profile speakers at its annual conference in Hollywood, Calif. on Nov. 12-13, 2004.
"In additional to the political discussions, the two-day conference will cover a wide range of topics offering practical ideas and solutions to the problems digital journalists face."
No author. Bloggers Help Set Election News Agenda. Webpronews.com. Sept. 28, 2004.
"It's a rare thing in the computer industry when corporate customers steer the development of a promising new technology and the suppliers follow their lead.
"But that's just the sort of dynamic that will be on display this week at the EPCglobal U.S. Conference 2004 in Baltimore, where the headliners will include executives from Albertsons, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Gillette and Wal-Mart Stores.
"The hot topic: RFID, short for radio frequency identification."
Alorie Gilbert. With RFID, Corporate Might Makes Right. News.com. Sept. 28, 2004.
"Taran Rampersad didn't complain when he failed to find anything on his hometown in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia is unique for an encyclopedia because anybody can add, edit and even erase. And the Wikipedia is just one,albeit the best known, of a growing breed of Internet knowledge-sharing communities called Wikis.
"Though for now largely the domain of techies, Wikis are poised to become what blogs have turned into--still in the Internet avant garde yet widespread enough to be influential."
Anick Jesdanuna. 'Wikis' Offer Knowledge-Sharing Online. USA Today. Sept. 26, 2004.
"Top-level employees -- chief executives included -- are beginning to take on teleworking. At one Cloumbus, OH, company, four of the company's seven top executives work from home or from remote offices, including in New York and Washington, DC. Teleworking is considered an asset. If an executive or employee asks to work from home in San Francisco, that's just another market in which the company is available in person to potential clients.
"According to a study released this month by the International Telework Association & Council, more companies are going the way of Pathlore. The number of people who performed any kind of work from home, from as little as one day a year to full time, grew from 41.3 million in 2003 to 44.4 million in 2004, a 7.5 percent increase."
Amy Joyce. Executives Leave Corner Offices Behind. WashingtonPost.com. Sept. 26, 2004.
See also:
International Telework Association & Council. Work at Home Grows In Past Year By 7.5% in U.S.. Sept. 2, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
"Jonathan Schwartz, president and COO of Sun Microsystems, has recently criticized statements by Intel executives, mused that IBM might buy Novell, and complained about a CNET.com article—all by writing a blog on a Sun website.
"Yep, blogs—which are a way to post text to a website—have found their way into business. Schwartz is the highest-ranking executive yet to embrace the new medium, which is burgeoning globally. About 35,000 people read his blog in a typical month, including customers, employees, and competitors.
"Schwartz encourages all Sun's 32,000 employees to blog, though only about 100 are doing it so far. But they include at least three senior managers other than Schwartz as well as development engineers and marketers."
David Kirkpatrick. It's Hard to Manage if You Don't Blog. Fortune. Oct. 4, 2004.
"Instant messaging is underutilized among companies, with only 18% of Fortune 500 companies having deployed IM, according to a forthcoming report by technology investment research firm Nucleus Research.
"The reason: Many companies still see IM as a toy associated with smiley-face emoticons and chat rooms."
Thomas Claburn. IM: What's The Real ROI?. InformationWeek. Sept. 23, 2004.
"New authoring features in Movable Type 3.1 give users more control over the performance as well as the look and display of their blogs. The result is a polished and powerful personal publishing system that begins to blur the line between mere blogging software and a Web content management system.
"However, it took longer to install Movable Type 3.1 than it has taken to install competing products, including Microsoft Corp.'s SharePoint Services and Traction Software Inc.'s TeamPage 3.5. This is because the Movable Type software lacks a graphical installer and has poor documentation."
Anne Chen. Movable Type 3.1 Burnishes Blogs. eWeek. Sept. 20, 2004.
See also:
Henry Baltazar. TeamPage System Blogs On. eWeek. Sept. 20, 2004.
Jim Louderback.
Nokia and Six Apart Team on Mobile Blogging. eWeek. Sept. 9, 2004.
"A year ago, no one other than campaign staffs and chronic insomniacs read political blogs.
"In the late 90's, about the only places online to write about politics were message boards like Salon's Table Talk or Free Republic, a conservative chat room. Crude looking Web logs, or blogs, cropped up online, and Silicon Valley techies put them to use, discussing arcane software problems with colleagues, tossing in the occasional diaristic riff on the birth of a daughter or a trip to Maui.
"Then in 1999, Mickey Kaus, a veteran magazine journalist and author of a weighty book on welfare reform, began a political blog on Slate. On kausfiles, as he called it, he wrote differently."
Matthew Klam. Fear and Laptops on the Campaign Trail. The New York Times. Sept. 26, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
"Programmers on Wednesday released the new version 3.0 of SpamAssassin, open-source software for filtering out unwanted e-mail, but the changes are as much legal as technological.
"Project leaders for the widely used software chose to enter the fold of the Apache Software Foundation to take advantage of the nonprofit group's legal and technical resources. To make the move, SpamAssassin had to adopt the Apache License.
"Previously, the software was available under a choice of two licenses: the General Public License that governs Linux and many other open-source programs and the Perl Artistic License."
Stephen Shankland. SpamAssassin Sports New Open-Source License. News.com. Sept. 22, 2004.
"Following in the footsteps of bloggers, IT managers have begun to utilize RSS—in categories ranging from calendars to CRM—as a powerful tool to deliver information from multiple sources at once.
"RSS (Resource Description Framework Site Summary) is a lightweight XML format for syndicating Web content that is commonly used to distribute news, headlines and other timely information. RSS feeds deliver content that can be read in news readers, which can be stand-alone applications or plug-ins to e-mail clients. The RSS format is used by organizations including Microsoft Corp. and The Walt Disney Co. to push information to customers and end users. (Another form of RSS, known as "Really Simple Syndication," is widely used by bloggers.)"
Editor's Note: I'm not sure what "Resource Description Framework Site Summary" is and how it differs from "Really Simple Syndication." From all the research I have done into this area, I am inclined to think that the reporter got the terms or definitions wrong. My understanding is the RSS that Microsoft uses to communicate across the enterprise is the same RSS that Joe and Jane Doe use to tell the world how great their tabby is.
Anne Chen. RSS Makes Enterprise Headlines. eWeek. Sept. 22, 2004.
"Well, last week, the insurrectionary pajama people—dubbed 'pajamahadeen' by some Web nuts—successfully scaled one more citadel of the mainstream media, CBS News. One of the biggest, baddest media stars, Dan Rather, is now clinging, white-knuckled, to his job. Not bad for a bunch of slackers in their nightclothes.
"You have to ask: Is this a media revolution? In some respects, sure. The Web has done one revolutionary thing to journalism: it has made the price of entry into the media market minimal.
"Does this mean the old media is dead? Not at all. Blogs depend on the journalistic resources of big media to do the bulk of reporting and analysis. What blogs do is provide the best scrutiny of big media imaginable—ratcheting up the standards of the professionals, adding new voices, new perspectives and new facts every minute."
Andrew Sullivan. A Blogger's Creed. Time.com. Sept. 27, 2004.
"MySpace.com, the leading social networking portal, announced today the exclusive debut of R.E.M.'s new album, Around the Sun, before its release in stores on October 5. This represents the first exclusive premiere of an album on a social networking portal.
"Using MySpace.com, R.E.M. and Warner Bros. Records are leveraging the reach of nearly 4 million users while adding a new dimension to the way music is marketed to fans by introducing a new album to a preexisting, highly interactive online community that can spread the word virally."
Chris Marlowe. MySpace Basks in R.E.M. 'Sun'. Reuters. Sept. 20, 2004.
See also
No author. MySpace Launches Exclusive Album Premiere of R.E.M.'S Around the Sun. Yahoo! Finance. Sept. 21, 2004.
"Perhaps for some, being credited with inventing the World Wide Web would be more than enough as far as life accomplishments go. But for Sir Tim Berners-Lee, it's merely the beginning of something even more fulfilling.
"The man who was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 greatest minds of the 20th century is now busy channeling his energies into the work of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a standards body he founded and now directs.
"Moments after delivering a keynote address at the SpeechTek Conference in New York earlier this week, Sir Tim sat down with internetnews.com to discuss the state of the Web browser market, the growth of the Semantic Web and some of the challenges facing the W3C."
Ryan Naraine. Tim Berners-Lee, Director, W3C. internetnews.com. Sept. 17, 2004.
"Microsoft is expanding a program to give government organizations access to some of its tightly guarded software blueprints amid growing competition from rivals who make such source code freely available.
"Beginning Monday, Microsoft will offer more than 60 governments and international organizations the option of viewing the proprietary source code for the latest version of its ubiquitous Office software, including the Outlook e-mail program, Microsoft Word and Excel spreadsheet application.
"Microsoft has launched a number of efforts in recent years to give governments and certain private groups access to some source code. The moves come as an increasing number of governments and companies are looking at switching to 'open source' alternatives such as Linux.
Associated Press. Microsoft Shares More Source Code. Wired News. Sept. 19, 2004.
See also
Peter Galli. Microsoft Opens Office Source Code to Governments. eWeek. Sept. 19, 2004.
"WebEx is set to release a new service Monday tailored for sales professionals, including a tool to make sure that the client is paying attention during a remote presentation.
"The 'attention indicator' is built into the Sales Center version of WebEx's service, primarily used for presenting PowerPoint slides over the Internet in conjunction with an audio conference call. Start goofing off during a virtual sales call, and the presenter will know it and respond by spicing up the presentation, said WebEx.
Joris Evers. WebEx Adds Sales Center for Sales Professionals. InfoWorld. Sept. 17, 2004.
See also:
David Becker. Look Alert -- WebEx Is Watching. News.com. Sept. 17, 2004.
"For Compassion International Inc., the efficient dissemination of information on topics such as disease and hunger can make a huge difference in a child's life. RSS reduced the time it took the relief organization to distribute information—in some cases, from weeks to minutes.
"Compassion International used to rely on faxing and e-mail to relay information. The organization now uses RSS (Resource Description Framework Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication)—to provide employees in remote locations with information.
Anne Chen. RSS Aids Relief Organization. eWeek. Sept. 20, 2004.
The Wikimedia Foundation announced today the creation of the one millionth article in Wikipedia, its project to create a free, open-content, online encyclopedia .
"Started in January 2001, Wikipedia is currently both the world's largest encyclopedia and its fastest-growing, with articles under active development in over 100 languages.
"Nearly 2,500 new articles are added to Wikipedia each day, along with ten times that number of updates to existing articles."
The Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia Reaches One Million Articles. Sept. 20, 2004.
"Software developer Xten Networks Inc. has an edge when it comes to meeting deadlines: a Web-based collaboration system called a Wiki, which has shortened its product development time by 20 per cent.
"Xten develops voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) software, and its development team is scattered across two continents. A Wiki 'was the best way not only to disseminate information but to allow developers to interact and provide input' between offices in California, British Columbia and Sweden, president Erik Lagerway says.
"In addition to running an employees-only Wiki that is protected by a firewall, Xten used a Wiki platform to beta test its latest VoIP software product, eyeBeam. The code was made available to potential customers such as large telcos and cable carriers, who explored it and published feedback to the Wiki.
Natasha Netschay Davies. Wiki Software Provides Free Shortcut to Cost Savings. The Globe & Mail. Sept. 16, 2004.
"Feedster, Inc., the first company to utilize RSS feeds and weblog content to enhance broad web search, today announced that it will power RSS and blog search results forEurekster, the first and only Internet search engine powered by social networking technology.
"By integrating Feedster’s news search technology and RSS feeds, Eurekster now provides its users and subscribers with an expanded search solution containing new sources of information and data beyond traditional Web search."
eMediaWire. Feedster Powers RSS and Blog Search Results for Eurekster. Sept. 16, 2004.
"Executives attending NanoCommerce 2004 will be able to take advantage of two unconventional networking opportunities provided by event organizers. Set for October 5-7 at Chicago's McCormick Place, NanoCommerce 2004's focus is on real nanotechnology products, partners and business strategy.
"Moving technologies developed for social networking into the business sector, NanoCommerce 2004 attendees can participate in two unique networking programs. 'Nano-Second Networking' is a type of speed dating tailored for business contacts. 'Self-Assembled Networks' is a program that allows registered attendees to interact before, during and after the show through a private online network."
NanoTechWire.com. NanoCommerce 2004 Launches Innovative Networking Programs for Premier Nanotechnology Business Conference. Sept. 18, 2004.
"Welcome to the world of legal online music ambiguity. Say hello to Grouper.
"Grouper - a temporarily stealth software project - has gone up for download and instantly created a confusing divide between the old world and the new. Unlike most P2P software that shares music and other files with world+dog, Grouper focuses on sharing files between friends. Users can set up mini-P2P networks and open up their photos, music, movies and documents.
"This approach seems much more similar to old-style content swapping where friends handed each other a mixed CD or recording of the UT versus Texas A&M; football game, just with a techie twist."
Ashlee Vance. New P2P Software Could End Illegal Music Squabbles. The Register. Sept. 13, 2004.
See also Raymond Blijd. The Grouper Exception. P2Pnet.net. Sept. 16, 2004.
"A danger with the goal of knowledge sharing is that it quickly shifts the KM team into 'solutions mode.' For example, knowledge sharing initiatives may focus on implementing a new expertise directory, or on improving collaboration tools. While these solutions may be potentially useful, if they don't meet specific business needs they won't be widely used.
"To avoid these issues, it is recommended that 'knowledge sharing' not be discussed beyond the confines of the KM team."
James Robertson. 'Knowledge Sharing' Should Be Avoided. CM Briefing. Sept. 3, 2004.
"Jessmyn West is a 36-year-old librarian living in central Vermont. But she's not your stereotypical bespectacled research maven toiling behind a reference desk and offering expert advice on microfiche.
She's a 'radical librarian' who has embraced the hacker credo that 'information wants to be free.' As a result, West and many of her colleagues are on the front lines in battling the USA Patriot Act, which a harried Congress passed a month after 9/11 even though most representatives hadn't even read the 300-page bill. It gave the government sweeping powers to pursue the 'war on terror' but at a price: the loss of certain types of privacy we have long taken for granted.
"What got many librarians' dander up was Section 215 of the law, which stipulates that government prosecutors and FBI agents can seek permission from a secret court created under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to access personal records -- everything from medical histories to reading habits. They don't need a subpoena. In fact, they don't need to show that a crime has even been committed. And librarians, stymied by a gag order, are forbidden to tell anyone (except a lawyer)."
Adam L. Penenberg. Don't Mess With Librarians. WiredNews. Sept. 15, 2004.
"Mark Zuckerberg ’06-’07 planned to spend his semester away from the College focusing on improvements to his popular networking site, thefacebook.com, while readying his next endeavor, Wirehog, for its long-awaited release. But any dreams of a stress-free semester were dashed on Sept. 2, when the founders of competitor ConnectU.com filed a lawsuit against his site and its five officers.
"The suit asks the court to shut down the site and force Zuckerberg and thefacebook.com to turn over the profits resulting from his alleged breach of contract.
"According to the complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, ConnectU LLC, formed by Divya K. Narendra ’04, Cameron S. H. Winklevoss ’04 and Tyler O. H. Winklevoss ’04, is seeking damages for Zuckerberg’s alleged theft of their idea—then called Harvard Connection—and his subsequent deception."
Timothy J. McGinn. Lawsuit Threatens To Close Facebook. The Harvard Crimson. Sept. 13, 2004.
"Forget the political conventions.
"When history books are written, bloggers' real contribution to the 2004 election may well turn out to be in providing leagues of amateur sleuths to fact-check political controversy.
"The Internet has been abuzz with bloggers' claims that the memos about President Bush's time in the National Air Guard publicized by CBS were actually a hoax. Keepers of online journals around the country have been analyzing the memos in excruciating detail, comparing the notes' typography to the technical specifications of early 1970s typewriters.
"The incident could help legitimize the role that blogs and other nonprofessional online writers are already playing in the everyday business of news reporting."
John Borland. Bloggers Drive Hoax Probe Into Bush Memos. News.com. Sept. 10, 2004.
"IBM plans to announce today that it will contribute some of its speech-recognition software to two open-source software groups.
"The move is a tactical step by International Business Machines to accelerate the development of speech applications and to outmaneuver rivals, especially Microsoft, in a market that is expected to grow rapidly in the next few years with increased use in customer-service call centers, cars and elsewhere.
"To do this, I.B.M. is again using the strategy of placing some of its proprietary software in open-source projects, making it available for other programmers to improve.”
Steve Lohr. Speech Code From I.B.M. to Become Open Source. The New York Times. Sept. 13, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
The Wisdom Project, the world's only open source think tank and founded by Matthew Ready, has announced the World's First Open Source Think Tank.
The purpose of this project is to foster knowledge and distribute wisdom. The Open Source model allows open dialogue for anyone who wishes to contribute ideas and insights. By using an innovative combination of e-forum and wiki technology, the Wisdom Project's open problem solving process is able to address the following questions over and over:
What are the most important problems?
What are the best solutions to those problems?
What can I do to help implement those solutions?
The Wisdom Project. The World's First Open Source Think Tank Empowers Ordinary People to Express and Develop Extraordinary Ideas. Sept. 9, 2004.
"Wikipedia has more than 340,000 articles, written by a sprawling online community. Researchers are testing its veracity, while plans proceed for fact-checking it formally. Can journalists trust Wikipedia, and can collaboration software such as wikis improve newsgathering?"
Mark Glaser. Collaborative Conundrum: Do Wikis Have a Place in the Newsroom?. Online Journalism Review. Sept. 9, 2004.
Editor's Note: Interesting enough, CNN cites Wikipedia throughout a recent article which updates the U.N. Security Council's official terrorist list.)
"This fall, students at the University of Massachusetts will have two new ways to meet, chat or flirt with other students on campus- without having to leave their dorm rooms.
"UMassfacebook.com and TheFacebook.com are online services that allow members to upload photographs and list a variety of personal information, including AOL Instant Messenger screen names, cellular phone numbers, interests and relationship status. Members can also link to their friends, and even see a list of their friends' friends-features similar to those on social networking site Friendster.com.
Umassfacebook.com is only open to UMass students but TheFacebook.com, a similar, more widespread website linking students at over 50 schools in the nation, will be available to UMass students by the end of September, according to Thefacebook.com spokesperson Chris Hughes."
Michelle Dozois. New Website Gives UMass a Look at Some Fresh Faces. Daily Collegian. Sept. 9, 2004.
See also:
Dana Moran. Online Network Community Adds SU to Growing List of Participating Universities. DailyOrange. Sept. 10, 2004.
"One of the Internet's more fascinating social experiments was born at a time when it seemed all the dot-coms were dying. Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia started in January 2001, has since surprised Web watchers by maturing into a popular reference site.
"Wikipedia's success is particularly remarkable because unlike regular Web sites, it is created entirely by the people who visit it. With more than 340,000 English-language articles, this community-edited encyclopedia is already considerably larger than its leading rival, the Encyclopedia Britannica, which offers 75,000 articles online in a subscription service.
"Yet some worry that because it charges users nothing, this new-age reference work may siphon readership away from old-school encyclopedias and take a devastating bite out of their revenue -- without delivering the same levels of accuracy and quality."
Leslie Walker. Spreading Knowledge, The Wiki Way. WashingtonPost.com. Sept. 9, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
"A San Francisco start-up plans to boldly go where no game developer has gone before with an online game based on the cult TV series 'Star Trek.'
"Perpetual Entertainment announced on Tuesday that it has signed a licensing deal with Viacom Consumer Products, owner of the 'Star Trek' franchise. The deal covers the original series and all TV and movie spinoffs.
"The agreement makes Perpetual the latest company looking to tap into the potentially lucrative but troublesome market for widely popular multiplayer online games, PC games that allow players to tap into a large online universe and interact with hundreds of other players.
David Becker. The Servers Cannot Take the Strain, Captain!. News.com. Sept. 7, 2004.
Stephen Downes, Senior Researcher with the E-Learning Research Group, reflects on an educational trend that is sweeping the world of online learning, one that brings a new set of skills and attitudes by using weblogs to support learning.
Stephen Downes. Educational Blogging. Educause Review. Sept./Oct. 2004.
"Macromedia is set to announce a new pay-as-you-go plan for its Breeze Live Web conferencing service. The move, which augments annual subscription and per-seat licensing plans, will allow Macromedia to offer a la carte service for 32 cents per minute.
"The new plan is intended to make the service more attractive to small businesses with light and irregular collaboration needs, said Macromedia. The Breeze Live service and software allow workers to present PowerPoint slides and other content through a Web browser and to jointly work on documents.
"WebEx continues to lead the market and takes in 67 percent of all Web conferencing revenue."
David Becker. Macromedia Starts Meter On Web Conferencing. News.com. Sept. 6, 2004.
See also:
David Becker. Web Conferencing Market Heats Up. News.com. March 1, 2004.
"Ed Choi is just leaving The Delancey Bar when his cell phone tinkles with a new text message. "Dodgeball.com says: Dens @ The Magician (Essex & Rivington) at 9:03 p.m. Reply w/ @ venue name to check-in!"
"A social networking service called Dodgeball is telling Choi where he can find his friend Dennis Crowley.
"Dodgeball takes Friendster's social networking model and applies it to the relatively new realm of 'geographically relevant mobile messaging,' creating a new category of service: Mobile Social Software, or MoSoSo."
Jay Dixit. Dodgeball.com Gives Serendipity a Nudge. Newsday.com. Sept. 7, 2004.
"After witnessing the hubris (and resultant failures) of so many Internet start-ups, many e-commerce sites have stuck to their knitting in recent years, rejecting the urge to expand into new products.
"But nothing fuels ambition like success, so now that some online companies have cleared their balance sheets of red ink, they are looking at new business territories to conquer - sometimes far afield of their original missions.
"A case in point is CarsDirect.com, the online auto marketplace, which will announce today the creation of two new businesses. The first, Autos.com, is a research and ratings service for auto shoppers - a reasonable enough add-on to CarsDirect's existing business. The second, though, is LoanStore.com, which offers, among other services, mortgages and home equity lines of credit."
Bob Tedeschi. Online Stores Branch Out. News.com. Sept. 6, 2004.
"Hypertaskers. Chances are you are one or you know one, and you're almost certain to spot a few this weekend.
"Fueled by workplace pressures, an expanding workweek and technogadgets that have allowed people to take their offices and homes anywhere they go, hypertasking is multitasking on speed.
"The burgeoning number of WiFi hotspots and popularity of handheld electronics that allow us to stay connected on the go may give us more freedom - but there's a cost. Research shows that our brains aren't equipped for this much activity. When we try to do more than even one simple task at a time, quality of work diminishes and tasks take longer to complete. When we try to do this for long periods, the result can be forgetfulness, sleeplessness, irritability and stress."
Susan Felt. Hypertaskers Do Things Faster But Not Better. AZCentral.com. Sept. 4, 2004.
"LinkedIn Ltd., a social-networking service for business professionals, is getting ready to offer paid features that fine-tune the way users connect with each other.
"The Mountain View, Calif., startup is still determining the specifics of its premium-offerings plans, but it is considering such features as the ability to conduct reference checks on job candidates and prospective business partners or to search for business experts in the network.
"Konstantin Guericke, the company's vice president of marketing, said the first premium option would come out in the next few months for recruiters. It likely would let them check a job candidate's background with former colleagues and others who might not be on a candidate's reference list but are in LinkedIn's network."
Matt Hicks. LinkedIn Preps Paid Services for Social Networking. eWeek. Sept. 1, 2004.
"Rising tides of spam are drowning the usefulness of e-mail, according to a new report from IDC. Spam has accounted for 38 percent of the 31 billion e-mails sent each day in North America in 2004, up from 24 percent in 2002.
"IDC researcher Mark Levitt said the biggest challenge is to use the lessons learned so far and the investments made to help screen all inbound and outbound e-mails without compromising worker efficiency, corporate governance and regulatory compliance requirements."
CNET staff. Spam Volume Keeps Rising. News.com. Sept. 1, 2004.
"Interested in the slow death of traditional media giants at the hands of a new technology? The era of the 'Democratization of Information,' with savvy citizens gaining access to the audiences once reserved for corporate media?
"The importance of solid, reliable sources in an over-communicated world with too many newbie “journalists,” many of whom are no more than shouters and snipers? And how about the dangers of the Balkanization of a cohesive news media landscape when it comes to vital common knowledge?
"Then turn your attention to 1992."
Frank Catalano. Weblogs Will Not Cause the 'Death' of Traditional Journalism. TacomaDailyIndex. Aug. 27, 2004.
"Some 42% of online Americans use instant messaging, and 24% of instant messagers say they use IM more frequently than email. This translates to 53 million American adults who instant message and over 12 million who IM more than emailing. On a typical day, 29% of instant messengers—or roughly 15 million American adults—use IM.
"The new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project also finds that instant messaging is especially popular among younger adults and technology enthusiasts. 62% of Gen Y Americans (those ages 18-27) report using IM. Within the instant messaging Gen Y age group, 46% report using IM more frequently than email."
Pew Internet & American Life Project. How Americans Use Instant Messaging. (.pdf) Sept. 1, 2004.
"The idea of penning a blog to cover the Republican National Convention isn't so unique after all.
"While the party doled out credentials for about 15 bloggers to officially cover the convention this week in New York, it seems every Tom, Dick and Jane is writing a blog from the convention floor, the streets of New York or home computers in basements across America.
"There are so many blogs related to the convention (or online pundits making pot-shot posts on their everyday blogs), there are search engines and Web sites to help track them all. A special site called Convention Blogger aggregates links for bloggers covering the convention."
Cynthia L. Webb. Bloggers Blanket Republican Convention. WashingtonPost.com. Sept. 1, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
"Friendster, known for breaking new ground in online social networking and promoting self-expression among peers, fired one of its employees Monday for her personal Web log. Joyce Park, a Web developer, said her managers told her Monday that she stepped over the line with her blog, Troutgirl. They declined to elaborate, except to say that it was CEO Scott Sassa's ultimate decision, Park said.
"Park's termination is the latest warning shot for employees who are participating in the blogging phenomenon. Comments made in public forums can boomerang if they come to the attention of the boss, even at supposedly hip, Web-savvy companies such as Friendster.
"The firing could dampen widespread enthusiasm for blogs, which by their own right have fostered the development of elaborate social networks on the Web. It also, once again, raises questions about how the new publishing medium changes roles of corporate communication, news media and the community online."
Stefanie Olsen. Friendster Fires Developer for Blog. ZDNet.com. Aug. 31, 2004.
"New communication technologies are getting an airing by federal agents and protesters alike at the Republican National Convention in New York City.
"While surveillance cameras are standard in security, the Federal Protective Service has taken the concept one step further for this week's convention. It has mounted tiny video cameras onto agents' helmets to give commanders a real-time view of what is happening around federal buildings throughout New York City.
"Footage is transmitted over a wireless network back to a mobile command center. Each camera enables the commanders there to observe a situation just as the officer on the street sees it."
Marguerite Reardon. Wireless Tech Gets Workout at RNC. News.com. Aug. 30, 2004.
"The Bush administration has released a strategic plan for every U.S. citizen's health information to be stored in an 'electronic health record' central database within ten years.
"Each person would have a 'personal health record,' an electronic file the individual would manage, that could exchange information with the EHR database.
"The PHR would contain information on a person's insurance plan, prescriptions, allergies, medical history, and conditions such as asthma or diabetes."
Mark S. Sullivan. Medical Records May Go Online. PC World. Aug. 23, 2004.
See also:
United States Department of Health & Human Services. HHS Fact Sheet--HIT Report At-A-Glance. July 21, 2004.
White House Press Secretary. Transforming Health Care for All Americans. May 27, 2004.
"Technology has changed how protests are organized.
"Activists are using the Internet to arrange housing for out-of-towners, organize a mass-flash of underwear emblazoned with anti-Bush messages and tell protesters what to say if they're arrested ('I am going to remain silent. I would like to speak with a lawyer.').
"Cell phones work well for on-the-fly mobilizations, and text messages add to their power. Some protesters are signing up for 10 p.m. daily text updates telling them where the next day's events will be.
"Mobile bloggers, or mobloggers, are expected to show up in droves and quickly post on the Web photos, text and even video chronicling events as they happen."
Ellen Simon. Technology Playing Role in GOP Convention Protests. eWeek. Aug. 27, 2004.
"Tech support once meant wrestling with the lingo of personal computers. These days, it may also involve grappling with a different kind of language barrier, as James R. Barr Sr. discovered.
"Barr called Dell seeking help formatting, partitioning and reloading Windows XP. 'I got a tech in India who spoke British English. I am 73, speak Alabama English and use two hearing aids. We both experienced some understanding problems.'
"One communications snag: The rep didn't realize that when Barr said 'oh' he meant the number, not the letter.
"Tech service horrors are nothing new, of course. War stories abound of people who languish on hold only to finally reach a support rep even more befuddled than they were. No company seems immune. But the situation appears to be worsening."
Edward C. Baig. Have You Tried to get Tech Support Lately? Arrgh! #*!!. USAToday. Aug. 27, 2004.
"In AOL's Second Annual Instant Messaging Trends Survey, which was conducted nationally and over the full range of IM systems and users, the company found that 59 percent of Internet users now use instant messaging.
"While teens and young adults still dominate the population, nearly 48 percent of those surveyed who are older than 55 year of age use instant messaging, and 43 percent of the employed populations of IM users use the product at work.
"And while 62 percent of the at-work users do use IM to stay in touch with family and friends, the overwhelming use is for business productivity reasons."
John Dickinson. AOL Study Shows Business IM Use On The Rise. InternetWeek.com. Aug. 24, 2004.
See also Business Wire. America Online Inc.'s Second Annual Instant Messaging Trends Survey Shows Instant Messaging Has Gone Mainstream. Forbes.com. Aug. 24, 2004.
"A new service would break down the walls between blogs' editorial and advertising content by matching up marketers and bloggers in a manner reminiscent of magazine advertorials.
The service, called Blogversations, is ostensibly designed as a way for bloggers to get paid to do what they've always done: carry on open-ended discussions with their readers about whatever they want to talk about. The difference is that Blogversations wants to find marketers willing to pay to sponsor the discussions.
"The sponsored discussions can 'help marketers engage tuned-out consumers,' said Umair Haque, one of the developers of Blogversations. 'They let bloggers retain control of what they have to say. They give readers interesting, thought-provoking discussion to take part in.'
"In return for hooking up bloggers and advertisers, Blogversations gets a cut of the payment."
Daniel Terdiman. Service Mixes Ads in Blog Chatter. Wired News. Aug. 25, 2004.
"A recent demonstration of new collaboration technologies under development at IBM's research labs won the company praise for its vision and deft handling of the Lotus Notes and Domino-to-Workplace migration issue.
"The technology closest to availability is a productivity component for Workplace called ActivityExplorer, which is expected to be a part of Version 3.0 of Workplace and due to ship next quarter.
ActivityExplorer combines e-mail, chat and shared work spaces in one interface. Users can share work, defined as collaborative objects.
Dennis Callaghan. IBM Sets Sights on Collaboration. eWeek. Aug. 23, 2004.
See also Dennis Callaghan. IBM Previews Future Collaboration Technologies. eWeek. Aug. 11, 2004.
"Preparing for more competition in the enterprise social software field, startup Socialtext Inc. has raised more than $500,000. Socialtext announced the Series A funding on Monday on its own blog.
"CEO Ross Mayfield said the investment will largely fuel product development for the company, which sells software for building wikis and Weblogs for enterprise collaboration.
"Venture capitalists have increasingly turned their attention to the social software and social networking arena with investments in everything from blogging and XML syndication services to online dating services and enterprise social networking."
Matt Hicks. Social Software Startup Garners Funding. eWeek. Aug. 24, 2004.
"Workshare, a specialist in collaboration software built around Microsoft Office applications, is aiming to alert businesses to the danger of hidden data lurking in their documents.
"The company launched Metadatarisk.org, a Web site with information on the dangers posed by hidden metadata in documents.
"The site includes Metafind, a downloadable tool for automatically analyzing and exposing metadata in documents posted on a given Web site."
David Becker. Software Maker Exposes Hidden Data. News.com. Aug. 23, 2004.
See also Jim Wagner. Scrubbing Content Metadata. Internetnews.com. Aug. 23, 2004.
"For the past three years, the military has been entertaining the surprising idea that video games, even those that you play on a commerical system like Microsoft's Xbox, can be an effective way to train soldiers. In fact, the Army is now one of the industry's most innovative creators, hiring high-end programmers and designers from Silicon Valley and Hollywood to devise and refine its games. Some of these games are action-packed, like Full Spectrum Warrior. Others, like one that the military's Special Operations Command is currently designing to help recruits practice their Arabic, are less so. All the games, however, speak to the military's urgent need to train recruits for the new challenges of peacekeeping efforts in places like Iraq."
Clive Thompson. The Making of an X Box Warrior. The New York Times Magazine. Aug. 22, 2004.
See also Evelyn Nussenbaum. Video Game Makers Go Hollywood. Uh-Oh. The New York Times. Aug. 22, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
"While their use is still largely limited to less-than-mission-critical purposes, online social networking services are becoming more popular each day.
"But there is growing evidence to support claims that some social networking services (SNS for short) can be a powerful professional ally to businesses — in particular, independent entrepreneurs and smaller companies, for whom each new personal connection is a significant business building block.
"LinkedIn and ZeroDegrees are two of the more popular services that facilitate business-oriented connections, and some argue these and similar sites are now doing a better job at connectivity than ever before."
Xeni Jardin. Online Social Networks Go To Work. MSNBC News. No date.
"New antispam technology standards are on the way that promise to hit spammers where it hurts the most--their wallets.
"At issue is the ability to authenticate the original source of e-mail messages, a major hole in the current system that allows spammers to easily forge return addresses and hide their tracks.
"This month, the Internet Engineering Task Force reviewed several e-mail authentication proposals, agreeing to fast-track a submission from Microsoft known as Sender ID."
Marguerite Reardon. Stopping Spam at the Source. News.com. Aug. 23, 2004.
"A recommendation to establish a federal civil liberties commission -- which would oversee all antiterrorism information-sharing among government agencies -- is gaining support and could be implemented relatively soon, government officials and outside observers say.
"But it remains to be seen just how much power the commission would have, and whether it would be accountable to the president or Congress.
"The idea comes from the 9/11 commission's report (.pdf), which said "at this time of increased and consolidated government authority, there should be a board within the executive branch to oversee adherence to the guidelines we recommend and the commitment the government makes to defend our civil liberties."
Ryan Singel. Congress Wants Rights Board. Wired News. Aug. 21, 2004.
See also Sarah Lai Stirland. Panel Queries Officials About Intelligence Oversight, Privacy. GovExec.com. Aug. 20, 2004.
"ConnectU.com is a free online community that connects people through networks of friends and common interests at over one-hundred different colleges and universities.
"ConnectU can be used for friendship, class work, dating, and developing professional relationships.
"While other networking sites are limited to each member's own college or university, ConnectU connects all students and alumni nationwide, resulting in better dating and networking opportunities."
eMediaWire. Thousands Flock to New Social Networking Web Site ConnectU.com. Aug. 22, 2004.
"The International Olympic Committee is barring competitors, as well as coaches, support personnel and other officials, from writing firsthand accounts for news and other Web sites.
"Participants in the games may respond to written questions from reporters or participate in online chat sessions — akin to a face-to-face or telephone interview — but they may not post journals or online diaries, blogs in Internet parlance, until the Games end Aug. 29."
Anick Jesdanun. Olympic Athletes Largely barred From Posting Online Diaries. USA Today. Aug. 20, 2004.
"Classroom Web logs, or blogs, many of which got their start in the last school year, are becoming increasingly popular with teachers as a forum for expression for students as young as the second-grade level and in almost any subject.
"In the blogs, students write about how they attacked a tough math problem, post observations about their science experiments or display their latest art projects.
"For teachers, blogs are attractive because they require little effort to maintain, unlike more elaborate classroom Web sites, which were once heralded as a boon for teaching. Helped by templates found at sites like tblog.com and movabletype.org, teachers can build a blog or start a new topic in an existing blog by simply typing text into a box and clicking a button."
Jeffrey Selingo. In the Classroom, Web Logs Are the New Bulletin Boards. The New York Times. Aug. 19, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
"Who needs postcards? Use high-tech ways to stay in touch while you're traveling.
"You create a Web site and simply update it when you get a chance, uploading a few new photos and writing a couple of paragraphs to let everyone know where you are and how you're doing.
"It's simple, and it's often fast (depending on your connection on the road), and as a result your loved ones become a part of your trip."
Joel Strauch. Blogging Across America. PCWorld. Aug. 20, 2004.
"You know blogging has gone mainstream when air-conditioning contractors are doing it.
"Some news media analysts say blogging is a significant shift in the way people get their news and learn about new consumer products and services.
"Research on the number of people who read blogs is scarce, although the people who read them are probably those who treat them as a supplemental part of a news media diet."
Chris Baker. What's all the blog about?. WashingtonTimes.com. Aug. 15, 2004.
"You can glimpse them in malls or school hallways, or even on the road, pumping a thumb (if not both thumbs) with speed and aplomb.
"They are text messagers, a rapidly growing breed who use the cell phone to tap out and send short electronic missives.
"Having initially boomed in Europe and Asia, text messaging has now invaded the United States with full force. In the first quarter, 2.6 billion text messages were sent on cell phones in the United States, an increase from 1.2 billion in the comparable period a year earlier, according to the Yankee Group, a market research company."
Matt Richtel. All thumbs, Without the Stigma. The New York Times. August 12, 2004.
See also Matt Richtel. You, Too, Can Join the Text-Messaging Masses. The New York Times. Aug. 12, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
"At the Aspen Institute's Conference on Journalism and Society in mid-July, a question was put to executives of major news organizations: Whom do you trust in online media today? Most answered with a list of the usual suspects: the Web sites of The New York Times, NPR, the Los Angeles Times.
"Jeff Jarvis, a blogger and president of Advance Internet, gave a different answer: 'I have learned to trust the voice and judgment of my fellow citizens.'
"That answer may have drawn snickers a few years ago. No longer."
J.D. Lasica. Transparency Begets Trust in the Ever-Expanding Blogosphere. Online Journalism Review. Aug. 11, 2004.
"The Internet is emerging as a key tool in the everyday lives of a majority of Americans, but when it comes to buying movie tickets or paying bills, they still prefer the traditional way.
"Although almost all Net users conduct some of their day-to-day activities online, most still resort to offline means to communicate and make transactions, the Pew Internet & American Life Project reported (.pdf) this week.
"'In just a few years, the Internet has made a strong mark on everyday life,' Deborah Fallows, author of the report, said in a statement. 'Yet, it is mostly the case that Internet users lean heavily toward the offline alternative for accomplishing the key tasks of their lives.'"
Dinesh C. Sharma. Study: Offline Still Beats Online for Some Activities. News.com. Aug. 12, 2004.
See also:
Pew Internet and American Life Project. The Internet Has an Impact on Americans’ Everyday Lives, but Traditional Offline Habits Still Dominate. Aug. 11, 2004.
"Microsoft will offer three new subscription plans to better accommodate usage patterns and will add Live Meeting to its volume licensing programs, the most common avenue for large corporate buyers to purchase Microsoft products.
"Microsoft launched Live Meeting late last year, after it acquired specialist PlaceWare.
"The service enables users to present PowerPoint slides, jointly edit documents and perform other basic collaboration tasks over the Internet."
David Becker. Microsoft Opens up Live Meeting. News.com. Aug. 10, 2004.
"Five Across Inc. will launch an instant messaging (IM) product for business users on Monday that the startup vendor hopes will be a workplace alternative to free, consumer-oriented, public IM services and pricy enterprise-class IM systems.
"Five Across' InterComm basic IM software can be downloaded and run for free over the vendor's IM network, a model similar to the one adopted by providers of consumer-oriented, public IM services, such as America Online Inc.'s AIM, Yahoo Inc.'s Messenger and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Messenger.
"Unlike consumer-oriented IM services, which are at their core geared toward casual use by individuals in a nonwork environment, the InterComm product contains a raft of workgroup features designed to allow business users to collaborate on documents, communicate and share files."
Juan Carlos Perez. New IM Service for Business Users Launched. InfoWorld. August 9, 2004.
See also Laura Blackwell. InterComm Fuses Messaging, Collaboration. PCWorld. Aug. 9, 2004.
"A consortium of major technology companies, including newfound allies Microsoft and Sun Microsystems, submitted a proposed new standard intended to promote interoperability between Web applications.
"The specification would provide a framework for applications to exchange and decipher messages, a key requirement for interoperability.
"Lack of interoperability has been one of the key factors in slowing down the expected boom in Web services, with many important applications unable to exchange data with one another."
David Becker. Sun, Microsoft Join on Web App Standard. News.com. Aug. 10, 2004.
The American Library Association Washington Office's Office for Information and Technology Policy is in the process of developing the Copyright Advisory Network, an online resource that will allow librarians to post questions about copyright issues, and receive answers to those issues. The answers will come from the Association's copyright experts, presumably including Carrie Russell, who writes the "Carrie on © column in School Library Journal, and is the author of Complete Copyright.
"The ALA should be appluaded for taking this step. It will be interesting to see how the Association navigates unauthorized practice of law concerns, and it also will be interesting to see the volume and nature of questions that may be posted to the Network.
Above all, this initiative highlights how important copyright knowledge is to all information professionals, including librarians. It is a shame, however, that so few graduate information science programs devote a full course to the topic. When last I checked about a year ago, no more than five of this nation's ALA-accredited graduate library science programs offer a course in copyright law. (Fortunately, my alma mater, Syracuse University's School of Information Studies, is one of them.)
American Library Association. Copyright Advisory Network.
Attribution: SNTReport.com first discovered news of the Copyright Advisory Network through a posting in LibraryLaw Blog, edited by Mary Minow.
"Yahoo is betting that search results tailored to the customer's location will give it the edge. The company's new local.yahoo.com test site 'greatly improves the ability of users to find directions, maps and other information related to everything from restaurants to movie theaters to day spas,' Yahoo said.
"Yahoo also has begun letting users rate and review businesses in their area through its local search site. The search results Yahoo provides include advertisements, called 'sponsored results,' for local businesses. Yahoo's move comes as its competitors are increasing their focus on the local search market. Google Inc. in March introduced Google Local, which provides maps, directions and other information for local businesses to users searching for such information on the Google home page."
Cynthia L. Webb. Yahoo: Trying to Be a Local Hero. WashingtonPost.com. Aug. 4, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
"Once a unique place for hackers and geeks, blogging and social networking have now become multi-million dollar enterprises where IT heavies roam in search of money-making opportunities.
"The industry itself has shifted from its early adopter stage to an 'awkward adolescence,' according to experts attending last Friday's BlogOn 2004 conference. But major IT players like Microsoft, IBM and others are finding that they can embrace blogs instead of fearing them and transition the communication platform from a technical tool to an enterprise goldmine.
"'Social media builds relationships. Connection happens before conversation, but still, this is business,' CEO Ross Mayfield said. 'What you will not find on your balance sheet is an underlying value proposition of enhancing social capital.'"
Michael Singer. IT Heavies Lifting Dollars For Blogs. Internetnews.com. July 26, 2004.
"IBM plans to contribute more than half a million lines of its software code, valued at $85 million, to an open source software group.
"The move is one of the largest transfers ever of proprietary code to free software, and I.B.M. is making the code contribution to try to help make it easier and more appealing for software developers to write applications in the Java programming language.
"I.B.M. is handing over the code for Cloudscape, a database written in Java, to an open source group, the Apache Software Foundation. Within the open source group, the database will be called Derby."
Steve Lohr. In Competitive Move, I.B.M. Puts Code in Public Domain. The New York Times. August 3, 2004.
See also:
Stacy Cowley. IBM offers Cloudscape as Open Source Code. InfoWorld. August 3, 2004.
Jim Wagner. IBM Tosses Embedded Database to Apache. InternetNews.com. August 3, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
"The organizers of Virginia's delegation are sure there must be hundreds or thousands -- or, at least a few -- people out there who wanted desperately to be part of the state's trek to Boston. To help them live vicariously, there is www.documentingdemocracy.com.
"That Web site is the Virginia delegation blog. Laura Bland, the Democratic Party's communications director, said she believes it is the only online convention journal being run by a state delegation.
"The audience is the great mass of people who are not part of the Virginia delegation. The intent is to provide a sense of participation when they are not in Boston . . . to bring politics to the absolute grass-roots level."
Michael D. Shear. Blogging Brings Convention Home to Virginians. WashingtonPost.com. July 28, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
"Bloggers have invaded the Democratic National Convention, and the mainstream media is reacting. The New York Times compared convention bloggers to journalists but emphasized their lack of experience in interacting with primary sources and quoted a professor who suggests 'that bloggers have put the issue of professionalism under attack.'
The Wall Street Journal focused on the up-and-coming nature of blogging in both news and politics, while Wired is chronicling the mainstream obsession with blogging.
In a convention without standout storylines, the bloggers are a mysterious spectacle. The tendency of bloggers to talk about blogging is often criticized, yet this practice of self-reflection is precisely what makes blogging a valuable contribution to public discourse."
Danah Boyd. The New Blogocracy. Salon. July 28, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: Salon.com normally requires a paid subscription, but you can view articles if you register for a free day pass.)
"For a few years now, blogs have given tech-savvy individuals a platform to publish directly to the Internet their personal opinions on everything from relationships to politics.
"In a sign blogs are moving mainstream, major technology companies including Microsoft and IBM came together at a recent conference to discuss the profit potential of the Web publishing format.
"The growth in the number of blogs, and those who read them, continues to attract attention from business leaders, including Microsoft's chairman Bill Gates, as a means of enhancing companies' communication more directly with employees, partners and customers."
Spencer Swartz. Blogging and Business Moving Mainstream. USA Today. July 28, 2004.
"It sounds positively medieval in the computer age: submitting handwritten reports to the government.
"Yet that was how hundreds of businesses and agencies in Michigan prepared monthly wastewater discharge reports -- until the state began using a new online system designed to rescue environmental data collection from the technological Dark Ages.
"Michigan has joined the National Environmental Information Exchange Network, a newly formed system that makes it easier for government workers to compile, submit and swap data collected under federal air and water pollution laws."
John Flesher. Online Network Helps Agencies Keep Tabs on the Environment. WashingtonPost.com. July 27, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
"Two years after finding his way off the recording industry's "most wanted" list, Audiogalaxy founder Michael Merhej is back with a new peer-to-peer software venture.
"The Austin, Texas, programmer's new company, ByteTaxi, is aimed at people who work on more than one computer or at small teams of people collaborating on a project.
"His FolderShare software, which will be officially released in its completed form Tuesday, is similar to the autosynchronization features on Palm handhelds or iPods but instead keeps files on two or more Net-connected computers up-to-date with each other."
John Borland. Audiogalaxy Founder Tries New P2P Venture. News.com. July 26, 2004.
"Long heralded as a way for the masses to wrest the Internet back from corporate control, the Web log has emerged as the hottest new enterprise tool.
"That's a key message emerging from BlogOn 2004, 'The Business of Social Media,' a two-day conference at the University of California's Haas School of Business here, where blog software providers, evangelists, engineers and others are exploring the disruptive and fertile landscape of online diaries both corporate and personal.
"Appearing on a panel with Microsoft were the founders of the blogging software vendor Six Apart, who told their own tale of corporate transparency through blogs."
Paul Festa. Blog's the Word in Big Business. News.com. July 23, 2004.
See also Matt Hicks. Blogging Catches Business Interest. eWeek. July 24, 2004.
Editor's note: See also SNTReport.com's prior BlogOn 2004 story.
"It’s Time to Take Blogs Seriously—and Maybe to Develop One of Your Own.
"Since the earliest days of the Internet, its evangelists have been predicting that the new medium had the power to transform the nature of journalism.
"For those who expected the Internet to change everything, and to do so overnight, the big shock must be how little things have changed. Yes, every newspaper now has its own website, and the pressure to break news in real time has led to some lowering of standards. But new, Internet-only media have been slow to evolve."
Micro Persuasion. Paul Holmes: PR People, Take Blogs Seriously. July 19, 2004.
"At what point do more people joining an online social network or using a social software tool cause more harm than good?
"While the answer may be elusive, panelists at the Supernova 2004 conference here agreed that the social dynamics around the use of burgeoning collaboration tools such as online social networking services, Weblogs and wikis are often as important as, if not more important than, the technologies themselves.
"Technologists need to delve into theories of group dynamics to make the new tools useful."
Matt Hicks. Social Issues Surround Social Software. eWeek. June 25, 2004.
"If your friends and colleagues don't know the answer to a given question, they often know of a better person to ask. Several teams of researchers are looking to the fast, easy communication of the Internet in order to leverage these social networks.
"Researchers from the University of Michigan have brought the possibilities a step forward with their Small-World Instant Messaging System (SWIM), which extends instant messaging systems by identifying expertise and routing queries accordingly.
"The system is designed to make it easier to get information that is complicated, too new to be part of an organizational knowledge base, or too valuable for its owners to make it public."
Kimberly Patch. Messenger Taps Social Nets. Technology Research News. July 14/21, 2004.
(Editor's Note: We are pleased to have Tim McAllister writing today's lead story. I met Tim in May during a presentation on social software applications I gave to the Law Librarians Society of the District of Columbia ("LLSDC"). By the time we met, Tim already was convinced of social software's viability in the workplace: for nearly a year, Tim has been the editor of KERBlog, and he has been a devoted, multi-platform user of instant messaging services for even longer. Here, Tim reviews MECA, an exciting product that seems to be a solution to the problem of IM messaging interoperability.)
I have long used two instant messenger (“IM”) services: AOL’s Instant Messenger, or AIM, and Microsoft’s MSN Messenger. My AIM “buddies” primarily have been work colleagues, and my MSN “buddies” have been friends. But I always have had the two services running in order to be accessible to both groups. I know people who use Yahoo! Messenger, and still others who use ICQ, but rather than deal with the hassle of having to monitor and maintain two more messenger clients, I ended my friendships with them. (Tongue firmly in cheek.)
I may have found a tool, however, that allows me to chat with all my contacts via IM –- regardless of the IM service they use.
Mutli-Platform IM Connections
MECA Messenger is an IM client that provides a powerful new feature called InterOp. Short for “inter-operability,” InterOp allows you to use the MECA Messenger interface to access and use four other IM services – AIM, MSN, Yahoo and ICQ – simultaneously with one device. With MECA, you can interact with your buddy lists from these four services as well as your MECA buddy list. You can also send text messages to most mobile devices and keep your contacts’ mobile numbers in your buddy list.
Installation was painless and I encountered no problems installing MECA on two computers, both Windows machines with broadband connections. Minimum system requirements list Microsoft Windows 98 or better, with eight megabytes of free hard drive space and 64 megabytes of RAM. (Currently, MECA operates exclusively on the Windows operating system; there are no versions for the Macintosh or Linux operating systems. -- Editor)
Once I completed a simple registration process, I listed my other IM screen names and passwords in the software, which allow the MECA device to access and operate with the other services. The software is free.
The IM experience using MECA is a familiar affair: when you message an AIM buddy from MECA, your contact sees your AIM screen name in an AIM message window. Likewise, when you message an MSN friend, he will see your MSN screen name in an MSN message window. Conversely, when an AIM or other buddy sends you a message, your MECA pod – not your AIM window – opens on your computer, but your buddy will see you with your AIM screen name.
Throughout the process, MECA remains invisible: my non-MECA buddies did not know or see that I was using MECA and not the respective IM services. (In fact, MECA might benefit from figuring out a way to add unobtrusive branding to those InterOp messages to spread the word about its service.)
In the last month, I have not opened my AIM, MSN or Yahoo messengers, but still have had access to those buddy lists and interacted with people on those services.
Flexible Features
One key benefit to MECA is that you can use it as a single, IM platform, yet manipulate the status of each of your screen names individually. For example, you can mark yourself as “away” on AIM, but still be online for MSN – all while using the same tool. Additionally, you can log off any one or all four messengers, but still monitor your buddy lists in MECA’s “Ghost Mode,” which makes it appear as if you are totally offline.
Further, MECA allows you to create customizable “away” messages for each service, and you also can create and choose a “global status” that you can set for all services at once, alerting all of your instant messenger buddies of your online or offline whereabouts.
Another useful feature is that MECA allows you to save and log conversations to your hard drive for review later. This can be a particularly useful tool for librarians who get IM reference questions: imagine having a transcript of your reference interview you could refer back to after the interview ends.
Channels and File Transfers
Like other IM services, MECA has channels that provide what I like to call my “procrastination tools” like games and horoscopes. They mention music and sports news in the online FAQ, but I have not been able to actually find these channels on the device I downloaded. MECA’s description of the channels suggests that they are not as extensive as the channels on MSN (which provide traffic updates, stock information), or AIM (which features scrolling news headlines), but show the potential for expansion. As MECA partners with other services, look for the channels to improve and expand.
Also like the other IM services, MECA allows file transfers to other MECA buddies, but the InterOp feature does not work with file transfers across IM platforms. So you can’t send a file from MECA to AIM; instead, you have to sign in with the AIM software to send a file to your AIM buddies.
An online directory of other MECA users is available and you can search profiles that individuals have made public. (You cannot use the InterOp features to search other service’s directories.) If you have contacts who do not use MECA, you will have to establish and maintain a screen name with AIM, MSN, Yahoo or ICQ to be accessible to them.
MECA’s Offline Messages feature allows you to see who tried to message you while you were offline. You can also monitor all of your POP3 or IMAP email accounts directly from your MECA Messenger, being notified when new messages are in your inbox.
Conclusion
Overall, MECA has the look and feel of a stripped down messenger, but the power and precision of letting you communicate across platforms. I use my messengers for quick, precise communications with people. If you can survive without needing the bells and whistles of file transfers, sports scores, celebrity news, and simultaneous web surfing other services provide, then MECA is a great IM utility and worth a look.
Tim McAllister is a Research Specialist at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Washington, DC. He received his MLS from the University of Maryland at College Park in 1994 and is a member of the Law Librarians Society of DC and the American Association of Law Libraries. His MECA screen name is GuinnessMan.
"During an interview at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference, CEO Steve Ballmer predicted that Microsoft would soon steal the game crown from Sony: 'We may still be losing money, but we have gone from nowhere to a significant player with a whole different approach. I bet we can take Sony next generation.'
"Indeed, Microsoft has made progress, signing up more than 1 million subscribers for Xbox Live, the online game service the company launched in late 2002."
Steve Musil. Week In Review: Ballmer Guns for Sony. News.com. July 16, 2004.
Ina Fried. Ballmer: Xbox 'Can Take Sony'. News.com. July 14, 2004.
"America Online Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. are teaming up to link their separate instant messaging services for use in the workplace, the first major step by the industry leaders to enable computer users to communicate with one another no matter which of the three systems they use.
"In an announcement, the triumvirate will outline a new partnership aimed at spurring greater use of instant messaging at work by tearing down the electronic walls that keep the respective networks separate.
"To use the new system, companies will have to license new Microsoft network software that will serve as the hub connecting messaging systems operated separately by AOL, Microsoft's MSN division and Yahoo."
David A. Vise. AOL, Yahoo And MSN To Integrate Messaging. WashingtonPost.com. July 15, 2004.
See also:
Matt Hicks. Microsoft Opens IM Server to AOL, Yahoo. eWeek. July 15, 2004.
Jim Hu and David Becker. IM giants Drop Some Barriers to Peace. News.com. July 15, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
"Microsoft is set to announce a deal Monday with British communications giant BT Group to boost the software giant's Live Meeting Web conferencing service.
"BT will resell Live Meeting subscriptions integrated with the company's own conference calling services. BT also has signed on to use Live Meeting internally for its 150,000 Internet connected employees.
Microsoft introduced Live Meeting last year as the outgrowth of its acquisition of Web conferencing specialist PlaceWare. The service allows businesses to present slideshow presentations and conduct more complex collaboration tasks over the Internet."
David Becker. Microsoft, BT team on Web Meeting Software. News.com. July 12, 2004.
"To one blogger, the author of Counterspin Central, the pressure to keep up led to a recent decision to shut down his blog altogether.
"Other bloggers feel that even if their readers aren't worrying about their health, they're still expected to be coming up with the next post with little or no delay.
"There's always pressure to have new content up on the site and this is where burnout begins to creep in."
Daniel Terdiman. Bloggers Suffer Burnout. Wired. July 8, 2004.
"Hours after the college freshman killed himself by jumping from a dormitory balcony, his classmates at George Washington University were whispering about the form of his farewell.
"They heard he had posted an 'away message' on his computer. 'Goodbye,' he wrote to friends with access to such postings on a Sunday evening in April. Then he typed his initials.
"What he actually did is less remarkable than how matter-of-factly the students talk about this newest shape of a suicide note."
Laura Sessions Stepp. Offline and Still in Touch With Away Messaging. WashingtonPost.com. July 9, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archives.)
"F. Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American lives, but Trip Hawkins' experience suggests otherwise. In fact, he's hoping for a third. Hawkins first served as a freewheeling flack for Apple in its early days, then he founded Electronic Arts. With two successes behind him, he launched videogame console maker 3DO - which went kaput spectacularly in 2003.
"Now Hawkins is back with Digital Chocolate, a Silicon Valley startup focused on making entertainment and social-networking software for cell phones. Sounds oh-so-1999, but Hawkins says he learned his lesson. With $8 million in venture funding and a dozen employees in tow, he's once more headed into the breach. Game on."
Richard Martin. The Reinvention Game. Wired. July 2004.
"Now that Apple has previewed publicly its 'Tiger' Mac OS X 10.4 release, everyone's raring to pit Tiger against 'Longhorn,' the code name for Microsoft's new operating system.
"And there's plenty of fodder for a grudge match. Both Apple and Microsoft are set to showcase new search systems, built-in RSS readers, new scripting shells and 64-bit support in their next-gen operating systems.
"But instead of focusing on features and functionality, many operating system (OS) aficionados — from Apple CEO Jobs on down — are dwelling on the no-win contest regarding who's the biggest copy cat."
Mary Jo Foley. Longhorn and Tiger: Who's Copying Whom?. Microsoft Watch. June 30, 2004.
Kudos to the American Association of Law Libraries, which has decided to publish an official blog of its 97th Annual Convention & Meeting. (The AALL Convention is being held this year in Boston, MA from July 10 through July 14.)
I have some observations about the effort.
1. Syndication: The use of both RSS and Atom syndication provides good access coverage. More blogs should offer dual-platform syndication.
2. Writers: How does AALL determine who will have publishers' privileges? The blog makes reference to a group called "The HUB Bloggers," but there is no biographical information available on the group or its members. As a result, a reader cannot get background information on the reader, their affiliation with AALL, or their connection to the Conference.
(Further, one of the most recent posts is from Raquel Ortiz, who I know is involved in the Webmaster's Developers workshop. But Ortiz is not listed as a part of the "HUB" group, nor is her bio or connection to the blog -- or the Association -- mentioned anywhere on the site.)
3. Posts: The length of some posts is too long, even though such postings seem to use Blogger's extended entry function. (The extended entry function allows lengthy postings to be divided across the main page and a referral page. This feature keeps lengthy postings from taking up too much space on the main page.)
Here at SNTReport.com, we send most of the text over to a jump page -- with just the lead paragraphs on the main page -- whenever we have a posting that is dense with text, or more than three paragraphs. (Note, for example, how this posting jumps from the main page to a referral page, which has the entire story, after the second paragraph.)
To be sure, a lot of this is a "feel" thing -- if the entry feels lengthy, it probably should be split after a couple of paragraphs and "jumped" to a referral page. Having said that, some of the posts here should jump to a referral page much higher in the story.
4. Classification: Where is it? It is inexcusable for a librarian or library association to publish anything that lacks requisite classification and metadata. The blog has disparate postings about traveling to Maine, Special Interest Section (SIS) events, and newsletters all in the same blog. The blog seems to lack a core theme -- which is another story altogether -- but convention coverage, while ambitious, can work if there is a strong classification scheme that allows readers to look exclusively at specific topics. Without such a scheme, content chaos will surely ensue.
5. Layout: I really like the layout. There is a good amount of white space, but given the density of the content, I think the white space is a welcome addition. (Granted, if the stories were jumped to another page, it might seem that there is too much white space, but multiple postings throughout the convention will probably take care of that.)
6. Key Information: What, no navigational link to the Hynes Convention Center?
7. Extras: From the "that would be really cool" department:
(a) Send the blog -- or at least certain blog categories -- to mobile devices;
(b) Allow authors to post to the blog -- or "moblog" -- through mobile devices or phones (actually, that might be more of a necessity than a luxury given the pace of the convention and the mobile nature of its participants);
(c) Publish multimedia snippets from some of the sessions, AALL officers, and blog authors.
(There is also a possibility that AALL could sell ad space on the blog, but I'll refrain from going down that road right now. I fear that such an initiative would become the exclusive domain of vendors such as West and Lexis, and I think vendors -- especially West and Lexis -- already have a disproportionate amount of influence on the Annual Convention and its proceedings.)
Overall, this is a good effort, but it needs to be polished for the 2005 meeting in San Antonio.
One last thing. In the spirit of city of Boston (which is also hosting the Democratic National Convention later this month) and the current presidential election year, I would like to take this opportunity to campaign for giving a blog to AALL's Washington Affairs Office, headed by Robert Oakley and Mary Alice Baish.
Almost everything that the Office publishes -- Action Alerts, press releases, amicus curiae briefs, statments -- could be published quicker and more efficiently using a high-powered blog platform. More importantly, the Office should use a blog to syndicate its content across the Web so that other interested parties are notified instantly about issues and topics. This last feature is critical given the Office's need for instant galvanization and response to copyright, privacy and access issues. (Case in point: the INDUCE Act (.pdf))
Frankly, I think it is foolish for the Association to continue to publish this sort of information in any other form besides a well-formed blog. And because I am so convinced of the efficacy of this initiative, I'll go even one step further: I offer right here and now to set up the blog for the AALL Washington Affairs Office on the Association's servers (or those of the Georgetown University Law Library, where the Washington Office's site is currently hosted) and train Bob and Mary Alice on how to use it for free.
Do I have any takers?
"Multiplayer games played on the Internet with PC's have been popular mostly with tech-savvy crowds. Players using PC's have to be capable of configuring their computers to meet a game's technical requirements, but playing online with a game console is simpler. Once a console is hooked up to an Internet connection, players merely click a button that takes them directly to the online game portal.
'In the United States, Sony has sold three million consoles with the online feature, more than 10 percent of the 25 million total PlayStation 2's sold, according to the company. But so far only about 1.2 million users are actually playing online.
"Microsoft says that a million of its 14 million Xbox users have purchased an online kit and subscribe to Xbox Live, the online play feature. While Nintendo sells an online adapter for its GameCube system, the company 'does not see online gaming as an important part of our business at this time,' a company spokeswoman said. Only two games for the GameCube are currently available online."
Eric A. Taub. No Longer a Solitary Pursuit, Video Games Move Online. The New York Times. July 5, 2004.
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
"Apple has published updated source code to its Rendezvous network-configuration technology for use in Windows, Linux, Unix and Java applications.
"The move is designed to entice developers to use the code to incorporate the 'zero configuration' technology into their own applications. The software allows network devices to automatically connect to other components of a network and to communicate what features they have to offer. The technology competes with the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) technology that Microsoft has developed."
Robert Lemos. Apple updates Rendezvous for Windows, Linux. News.com. June 30, 2004.
"Web logs have done more to spark opinion-sharing than anything since the creation of the Internet. But is this new vehicle of unconstrained expression fated to come under the thumb of the powers that be?
"Moves are already afoot to shade the blogosphere ever so slightly for partisan advantage.
"The Democrats plan to invite a limited number of bloggers to their summer political convention in Boston. A Republican spokesman says the GOP is still thinking about what it wants to do."
Charles Cooper. The Blogging Cover-Up. News.com. July 2, 2004.
"Lord Foucault is an admitted rapist. He does it on impulse -- for the thrill of it and for the feeling of control he has over his female victims.
"But he's not attacking women in real life. Instead, Lord Foucault is a character in Sociolotron, an online virtual world that gives players a platform where they can act out a wide range of fantasies.
"Sociolotron, currently in beta, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The game offers fare such as battling monsters, questing and other fantasies familiar to players of games like EverQuest and Ultima Online. But Sociolotron differs by providing a way to indulge in sexual taboos like rape and bondage with consequences like sexually transmitted diseases and even pregnancy. And it is quite explicit in informing would-be players about what they may experience in-world."
Daniel Terdiman. Pursuing the Libido's Dark Side. Wired News. June 28, 2004.
See also Xeni Jardin. High-Speed Love Connection. Wired News. June 24, 2004.
"By giving its blessing to XML syndication, Apple is joining the trend of browser makers embracing Web news feeds and potentially bringing the technology to the masses.
Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer Inc., previewed the company's next version of its Web browser, dubbed Safari RSS. RSS refers to the acronym for Really Simple Syndication, the major format for XML syndication.
"Safari RSS will allow users both to aggregate feeds directly in the browser as well as to automatically detect when a feed is available on a Web page."
Matt Hicks. Apple's RSS Embrace Could Bolster Adoption. eWeek. June 28, 2004.
"Cellphones are usually used to help people keep track of each other and stay in easy contact. But they are also starting to take on quite a different function — helping users hide their whereabouts, create alibis and generally excuse their bad behavior.
"There is nothing new about making excuses or telling fibs. But the lure of alibi networks, their members say, lies partly with the anonymity of the Internet, which lets people find collaborators who disappear as quickly as they appeared."
Matt Richtel. For Liars and Loafers, Cellphones Offer an Alibi. The New York Times. June 26, 2004.
See also SMS.ac
(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)
"You've just finished an ambitious enterprise software installation, only to find that employees aren't using their shiny new tool. What went wrong?
"Silence. That was the sound in our support center. Our team interpreted this hush as a sign that our largest customer's software installation was working perfectly.
"We were basking in the glory of a perfect enterprise rollout. The users had gushed over the new software during training and swore that they couldn't wait to use it. What a grand success!
"Turns out we were acting like the proverbial ostrich with our heads buried in the sand. Sure the software was installed OK, but no one really knew if it was working because no one was actually using it.
"Our management team decided to review the implementation project and found three major reasons why the rollout ultimately failed."
Eric Spiegel. Why Enterprise Software Rollouts Fail. CIO Update. June 18, 2004.
"CANARIE, Inc., Canada's advanced Internet development organization, has selected Nortel Networks Optical Multiservice Edge 6500, an optical convergence solution that provides resilient, secure and scalable broadband connectivity. CANARIE will be using the product to support research in such fields as astronomy, bioinformatics and high energy physics.
"As part of its ongoing work to position Canadians to reap the benefits of the latest technological developments, CANARIE is adding a third 10Gbps wavelength to CAnet 4, the national optical Internet research and education network that interconnects universities, research centers, government research laboratories, schools and other eligible sites nationally and internationally.
"As part of this network expansion, Nortel Networks Optical Multiservice Edge 6500 was chosen to perform SONET/SDH line termination and cross-connecting functions through CANARIE's User Controlled Lightpath software. This feature of CAnet 4 gives end users the ability to provision, partition and allocate network links to other users without involving a central management organization."
Business Wire. CANARIE Expands World's Most Advanced Customer Empowered Research and Education Network Using Nortel Networks Optical Networking Solution . Forbes.com. June 17, 2004.
"America Online has launched AIM Business Services, a platform that lets users host or join conference calls and Web meetings through the AOL Instant Messenger interface.
"The first services launched are AIM Voice Conferencing and AIM Web Meetings. They work only with AIM 5.5.
"AIM Voice Conferencing places conference calls through the AIM client. Buddy List contacts who are online automatically appear in the Call Roster; hosts click to issue invitations. Invited participants get an instant message with conference call details and a request for a contact phone number. Participants who supply the number receive a phone call within seconds.
"AIM Web Meetings uses a similar Call Roster interface to set up and initiate video conferencing via AIM. Invitees are asked to supply an e-mail address, and click on a Join Meeting button in the e-mail message to get the URL and meeting number necessary to attend the conference."
Laura Blackwell. AIM Hosts Online Meetings. PC World. June 10, 2004.
"Social networking is on everyone's thoughts, it seems; but other sorts of social tools are likewise getting a lot of interest. And the reason for that is simple: the core benefits of all social tools are very similar, and because of those core similarities, we are going to see (and in fact are seeing) a lot of convergence.
"The major enterprise instant messaging solutions are rapidly being reworked into a combined communication/collaboration solution, providing a broad spectrum of capabilities ranging from minimal one-to-one text messaging to many-to-many real-time Web collaboration with all sorts of shared application support. In essence, this movement toward real-time application sharing through the instant messaging infrastructure will mean that nearly all nonsocial software will become socialized.
Stowe Boyd. The State of Social Tools. darwin. June 2004.
"Hi-Tech Who Done It! is part of a research project called the Education Arcade that aims to make computer and video games a valuable component of teaching. The undertaking is a collaboration between MIT and the University of Wisconsin-Madison and will ultimately bring together a consortium of educators, game designers, publishers, and policymakers to develop sophisticated games that range from quick demonstrations that illustrate points made in lectures to semester-long projects that support the content of courses. The educational games will be aimed at motivating high-school students or helping advanced-high-school or first-year college students learn complex concepts. Teachers will also benefit, as the Education Arcade is developing a website that will serve as a clearinghouse for lesson plans coordinated with existing commercial games, projects and programs to help students learn to create games, and online forums where teachers can share best practices with their peers."
Sally Atwood. Education Arcade. Technology Review. June 2004.
On the same day that Apple Computer announced a fix to its greatest security threat in several years, the company also announced the debut of a new wireless product that allows music and file sharing.
"AirPort Express, due in July, features both analog and digital music outputs to connect to speakers or sound systems. The device also plugs directly into a wall outlet, with no need for additional cables or power adapters, which Apple said should make it appealing to travelers as well as to those who want to stream music in their homes.
"Like Apple's existing AirPort Extreme products, the Express uses the 802.11g wireless standard. Music is streamed from an iTunes-equipped PC or Mac that uses a technology Apple is calling AirTunes."
Ina Fried. Apple's AirPort Adds Home Music Streaming. News.com. June 7, 2004.
Leander Kahney. Apple Pumps Music Through Air. Wired News. June 7, 2004.
Apple Computer. AirPort Express.
Apple Computer. AirTunes.
Apple Computer. iTunes.
Ina Fried. Apple Patches "Critical" OS X Flaw. News.com. June 7, 2004.
"The amazing thing is that wikis work at all. Created in 1995 by Oregon programmer Ward Cunningham, who named them for the "Wiki-Wiki," or "quick" shuttle buses at Honolulu Airport, wikis are special Web sites on which anyone can post material without knowing arcane programming languages. Likewise, anyone can edit them. This can lead to mischief: Jokers have posted images of male anatomy on Wikipedia. But graffiti is usually gone within minutes, because the previous version of a page can be restored with a click. In sensitive corporate situations, access can be controlled, too.
"That's one reason the onetime nerd novelty is infiltrating the corporate world. Peter Thoeny, creator of TWiki, a leading open-source wiki program, says at least 35,000 people have downloaded TWiki since 2001. Two-thirds of his programs are going into businesses -- Walt Disney, SAP, and Motorola among them."
Robert D. Hof. Something Wiki This Way Comes. Business Week. June 7, 2004.
Robert D. Hof. Wikis' Winning Ways. Business Week Online. June 7, 2004.
WebEx, the online conferencing service, has released its newest Training Center, which integrates e-commerce capabilities into the service so companies can charge attendees to take a training course or charge back a department within an enterprise for training. The revisions to the Training Center helps companies make money from offering training.
Matt Hicks. WebEx Turns Training into Cash. eWeek. May 25, 2004.
Webex. Training Center Datasheet.
"The other day, a CIO was complaining about how users at his company were running roughshod over corporate systems and networks. The most recent problems came to light when a network failure cut off e-mail and Web access throughout the company's far-flung operations.
"Instead of simply calling it a day, creative employees quickly implemented workarounds. One group installed a quick and dirty Wiki to enable team communications. Another took advantage of America Online Inc.'s Instant Messenger application to route files and messages between geographically remote employees. Others used Web e-mail and wireless networking to keep the company's business flowing."
"The CIO moved quickly to lock down corporate desktops and laptops to prohibit users from installing unapproved software. It's not the first time I've seen such a dramatic, knee-jerk response to user-supplied productivity tools."
Jim Louderback. Finding Middle Ground in Office Use of Collaboration Tools. eWeek. May 24, 2004.
"With the April launch of UThink, a program under the library's auspices to offer free blogs to the university community, the University of Minnesota is among the first university libraries to become the center for blogging. Blogging has become popular on campuses nationwide but not necessarily sponsored by the academic library. UM asserts that blogging is key to the library's mission, from collecting 'campus history' to facilitating academic discourse."
Andrew Albanese. UM Library Offers Free Blogs. Library Journal. May 17, 2004.
University of Minnesota University Libraries. UThink: Blogs at the University Libraries. April 12, 2004.
University of Minnesota University Libraries. UThink FAQ. No date.
"Posting a work plan on a Weblog made three key things happen. First, it forced the team to strategically organize its initiatives into a coherent roadmap fit for broader internal consumption. Next, it created a sense of accountability for these initiatives within the team because we had collectively agreed on the initiatives and documented the process. Finally, posting our plan for the entire company to see helped foster a sense of accountability to our non-IT colleagues within the company."
Chad Dickerson. Blogging Behind the Firewall. InfoWorld. May 21, 2004.
Chad Dickerson. RSS: Really Simple Solution. InfoWorld. Jan. 30, 2004.
"The drive by public agencies to provide information and services on the Internet opens up a way for Americans to contact government that was not available a decade ago. This report (.pdf) takes stock of how e-government is faring by placing e-gov in the context of the other ways people get in touch with government, such as telephone calls, in-person visits, and letters. It then assesses whether different means of contact – or other factors – are connected to the rates of success and satisfaction that users report when they reach out to government. This comparative look at how Americans get hold government reveals the benefits and limits of e-government at its current stage of evolution."
Pew Internet & American Life Project. How Americans Get in Touch with Government. May 24, 2004.
Less than a week after my presentation, "Social Software in the Library," for the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C., today's SNTReport.com post brings you several items that discuss the importance of syndication within the social software toolset.
The first story is from Wired News, which publishes a review of RSS aggregators. "The Web is awash in little orange buttons. Those buttons take readers to pages filled with XML code for RSS or Atom syndication services. People who don't know about XML or RSS or Atom get a screen full of ugly computer code," says the Wired News article. "But those clued into the secret handshake -- or more accurately, the right decoding software -- know those buttons are the key to speed-reading the Web. Those buttons are for people who use aggregators (sometimes called newsreaders)."
"The aggregators come in many forms, sizes and prices. There are open-source apps for the desktop, Web-based applications and even readers for Palm PDAs. Wired News took a look at four leading readers to get a sense of which tools are the best for keeping an eye on breaking developments on the Web."
The second article, from Mary Jo Foley's excellent Microsoft Watch blog, outlines the importance of syndication, not only to the world's most influential computer company, but all of the world's most influential businesses.
"Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates found a way to explain Real Simple Syndication (RSS) to 100 CEOs, some of whom are barely comfortable checking their own e-mail, as part of his keynote that kicked off the company's eighth annual CEO summit," wrote Foley.
"The productivity benefits accrued by companies that aren't afraid to back 'bottoms-up empowerment' was a key theme for Gates during his hour-long address, attended by CEOs from Barnes & Noble, Berkshire-Hathaway, Dell, Delta, Fanny Mae, Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot and other Fortune 1000 firms from around the world."
What Foley's article does not address is the extent to which Longhorn, Microsoft's operating system-in-development, will support RSS and other collaborative, social software tools. Preliminary indications suggest that Longhorn's support for social software will be strong.
Finally, we link to an interview with Microsoft's Robert Scoble, who discusses the blogging phenomenon.
Ryan Singel. A Scan of the Headline Scanners. Wired News. May 21, 2004.
Mary Jo Foley. Gates Pushes 'Power to the People' Message. Microsoft Watch. May 20, 2004.
Microsoft Business Solutions. The Four-Letter Word That Can Get People Excited About Your Products. April 30, 2004.
Atom Enabled Alliance. What Is Atom?. No date.
Technology at Harvard Law (Berkman Center). RSS 2.0 Specification. April 19, 2004.
"The blogging phenomenon has intriguingly useful implications for IT. I have to ask myself: Why wouldn't it make sense for an IT project manager to post a blog—or "plog" (project log)—to keep her team and its constituents up-to-date on project issues and concerns? Is it inherently inappropriate for an individual to post constructive observations about a project's progress? IT organizations that can effectively use blogs as managerial tools (or communication resources) are probably development environments that take both people and their ideas seriously."
Michael Schrage. The Virtues of Chit Chat. CIO. May 15, 2004.
Google has added new mailing list creation functionality to its Google Groups service, giving it a capability that competes directly with the Yahoo Groups service. Google Groups had been a service allowing people to search and post to Usenet discussion areas. The Google Groups 2 beta site expands this to allow people to create their own mailing list-based "groups" for free.
Danny Sullivan. Google Groups Adds Mailing Lists & Other Features, Competes With Yahoo Groups. Search Engine Watch. May 12, 2004.
"Peer-to-peer systems may provide complementary solutions and meet all of the core requirements that could be asked of an extranet. In this model, users directly access files saved on each other's computers. As a result, there is no one to pay for storage and no problem with stopping payment for the service.
"An unusual alternative for smaller projects is Microsoft Instant Messenger (Win|Mac), which has the potential to develop into something highly useful if combined with Microsoft's forthcoming database-driven operating system Longhorn."
Alec Milton. End in Sight for Extranets. Computer Weekly. May 12, 2004.
Beginning in the Fall 2004 semester, students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute -- internationally known for its mathematicians and engineering programs -- can minor in game studies.
Kathleen Ruiz, who is co-director of the new program, said in a Reuters article that RPI decided to create the program because video games have become "an important part of the [American] culture." Ruiz also teaches a course in the program called Experimental Game Design.
RPI's program announcement points to the increasing cultural, collaborative, communal and economic influence of video games, both here and abroad. RPI's gaming design program follows the creation of similar programs at Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, MIT and the University of Southern California.
Reuters. Colleges Offering Video Game Studies. WashingtonPost.com. May 12, 2004.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. GameFest To Kick Off New Minor in Game Studies at RPI. April 6, 2004.
(n.b. The Post allows free access to their stories for 14 days before they are sent to the paper's fee-based archives.)
"Social networks are a good thing. Everybody should have one--and everybody I know does, in some form or fashion. But whether you need an online social network and, particularly, whether you need one whose primary purpose is separating you from your money is another question entirely."
David Coursey. No Business in Social Networking. eWeek. May 4, 2004.
"Even as much of the Internet has come to resemble a pleasant, well-policed suburb, a little-known neighborhood known as Internet Relay Chat remains the Wild West. While copyright holders and law enforcement agencies take aim at their adversaries on Web sites and peer-to-peer file-sharing networks like Napster, I.R.C. remains the place where people with something to hide go to do business.
"Probably no more than 500,000 people are using I.R.C. worldwide at any time, and many of them are engaged in legitimate activities, network administrators say. Yet that pirated copy of Microsoft Office or Norton Utilities that turns up on a home-burned CD-ROM may well have originated on I.R.C. And the Internet viruses and "denial of service'' attacks that periodically make news generally get their start there, too. This week, the network's chat rooms were abuzz with what seemed like informed chatter about the Sasser worm, which infected hundreds of thousands of computers over the weekend."
Seth Schiesel. The Internet's Wilder Side. The New York Times. May 6, 2004.
(n.b. The Times keeps stories free on the Web for seven days before sending them to its fee-based Archive.)
"In some households, instant messaging has generated a fundamental shift in the way kids are communicating. And it turns out that monitoring the telephone was a lot easier than monitoring the computer.
"AOL doesn't disclose demographic information for its membership, but it does for AIM users. There are 36 million active screen names on AIM, and 25 percent are for users under 17. Two billion IMs fly through cyberspace every day -- for all ages."
Ellen Edwards. Buddy Lists and Mixed Messages. WashingtonPost.com. May 4, 2004.
(n.b. The Post allows free access to their stories for 14 days before they are sent to the paper's fee-based archives.)
"Social networks are a good thing. Everybody should have one--and everybody I know does, in some form or fashion. But whether you need an online social network and, particularly, whether you need one whose primary purpose is separating you from your money is another question entirely."
David Coursey. No Business in Social Networking. eWeek. May 4, 2004.
"Frisbee-throwers and lawmakers alike could soon be able to access free wireless Internet on Washington's National Mall under a plan announced by a nonprofit group on Wednesday.
"Members of the Open Park Project already have set up a wireless access point covering the Supreme Court and the Capitol and say they hope to extend wireless broadband coverage across the capital's monument-filled core within a year." (Washington Post)
"Unwiring the downtown Washington, D.C. area is particularly interesting because of its potential for enhancing democratic discourse. Free wireless access in the heart of the Capitol's demonstration zone could enable more effective use of communication technologies, both by participants and observers, in covering political actions and events. In effect, wireless could extend the voices of demonstrators and allow observers to listen to political speech in ways that have not been possible before. (commons-blog)
Reuters. Free WiFi Planned for National Mall. WashingtonPost.com. April 28, 2004.
(n.b. The Post allows free access to their stories for 14 days before they are sent to the paper's fee-based archives.)
Information Commons. Wireless Access: An Idea to Enhance Democracy. commons-blog. April 29, 2004.
During the past week, two library advocate organizations have issued reports that detail extensive funding cuts to libraries, and one of the organizations warns that libraries must change their managerial directions and service offerings if they are to remain relevant -- or even open -- in the future.
The first report was issued in the form of a database by the American Library Association, the largest library representative organization in the United States. The ALA findings confirm what many librarians have known for some time: many of the country's libraries continue to lose funding at an alarming rate. The ALA documents several trends that suggest American libraries are endangered species: library personnel and operating hours have been reduced, patronage is down, and there is an increased reliance on non-professionals in critical functions.
"ALA has found that libraries in at least 41 states (82 percent) report funding cuts of as much as 50 percent," said the Association. "Most of the data accumulated from published reports reflects deep cuts to library budgets on the federal, state, and local levels. Many 'positive' news stories describe a status quo situation—library staff are relieved that their limited budgets aren’t reduced further or that fundraising efforts are underway to close funding gaps."
This trend is not isolated to the United States, according to Libri, a UK-based charity whose mission is to "encourage a vibrant and relevant public library network, where the local library can develop as a centre of community involvement, and which everyone in the local community wants to use."
Libri has commissioned a study that points out that British archives and museums are being used more, yet the public is ignoring the country's libraries. "In the past seven years, use of museums and archives in this country has doubled. Since visitors have been recorded, use of the public library service has fallen each year until 2003/4, for which figures are yet to be fully reported," according to the executive summary. "In the library service there is so much good work in progress to introduce reading to those who are excluded and to those who are isolated. Libraries have always been a centre for learning through life."
"However, today’s reality is that if we do not address the fundamental structural problems of the library service, there may be no libraries to provide these excellent services to readers in ten or fifteen years’ time," the report continued. "Those who are responsible for libraries must change what they are doing, and the way they approach their work. Change in the library service requires change in the library profession and in the way in which library professionals are managed."
An article in the Guardian about the Libri report was even more direct. "[Libraries] stock too few new books, are not open at times that suit the public and are burdened with too many expensive administrators," according to the article. "Figures on the declining popularity of the service have spurred the government to call a high-level meeting to try to find answers to what is seen as a gathering crisis."
The libraries summit, as it is being called, will be convened on June 21 by the media and heritage minister Lord McIntosh, said the Guardian.
One possible way to save libraries is to transform them into "discovery centers," according to a BBC news report. "More needs to done to attract people through the doors," according to the article. "Discovery centres will therefore offer additional services such as IT facilities, access to lifelong learning, local history information, archives and museum displays to attract new visitors."
The message from these reports is clear: libraries (and those who work in them) need to better serve their customers. We believe that one way libraries can do this is by using technology to foster and extend community. Community always has been the advantage that libraries have had over other institutions, but libraries have been very slow to develop community beyond the walls of the physical building.
The "discovery center" concept described above demands that librarians use technology in novel ways in order to extend the library virtually. More than anything, though, libraries must have librarians that are ready, willing, and able to implement fresh ideas that will attract a new generation of users.
American Library Association. ALA's Report on Library Funding in the United States. No date.
American Library Association. National Study Finds Library Funding Cuts in 41 States. (Press release.) April 19, 2004.
John Ezard. British Libraries Could Shut by 2020. Guardian Unlimited. April 28, 2004.
Ian Herbert. Hi-tech centres to save libraries. BBC. April 27, 2004.
Tim Coates. Who's In Charge: Responsibility for the Public Library Service. (.pdf) Libri. No date.
UPDATE: The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals responds to Who's In Charge?
"Gartner predicts that by 2005, 60 percent of interpersonal data messaging by enterprise and consumers will be real-time, exploiting location and other presence indicators. Instant messaging has already inundated enterprises and a variety of handheld devices.
"Several companies now offer instant message software that addresses security, auditing and integration issues. AOL, IBM, Microsoft, Sun and Yahoo have begun selling corporate IM services that include security and regulatory compliance features. IBM is experimenting with an application called NotesBuddy, which integrates IM functionality with e-mail. IM conversations are stored in e-mail in-boxes, and are searchable."
Dan Farber. Top Strategic Technologies for 2005. ZDNet Australia. April 26, 2004.
"The endless schemes, scams, and shams that now dominate the Net are quickly dragging us toward a future wherein the Net as we know it is basically unusable. Put plainly: the Net's getting messy.
"The Internet was never built for commerce. It was designed more than 30 years ago as a communications system that still closely resembled the structure of ancient communication systems: post, view, reply.
"The Net's model of interaction was built to present, represent and point to other pieces of information. But this model of interaction is not the model of interaction that we use in the "real world"--the worlds of social interaction or commerce. As such, the Net's core architecture is unable to adequately accommodate the higher level commercial and social activities that people are now attempting on it."
Eric Norlin. The Net's Gettin' Messy. ZDNet.com. April 22, 2004.
Yesterday and Sunday, The New York Times on the Web published a pair of stories that deftly chronicle how the entertainment and computing industries are converging, as the proliferation of social software such as WiFi, peer-to-peer networking, and handheld devices continues to force both industries to evolve.
At the center of this convergence is Apple. The computer company, during the second tenure of Chairman Steve Jobs, has remained a distant second to Microsoft in terms of personal computer operating system market share. But recently, Apple has been at the forefront of several several social software initiatives that make the company vitally relevant. Through its AirPort system, Apple was one of the first companies to offer and simplify WiFi access through the personal computer. Apple is at the center of SubEthaEdit, a collaborative editing platform that allows all users to type anywhere in the text without locking parts of the text for other users. SNTReport.com was one of the first publications to cover this technology when Steve Arnold wrote a feature story about it in March.
And there is the iPod, Apple's wildly successful handheld device. Apple now sells more iPods than it does computers, and the device (along with the iTunes Music Store) perhaps singlehandedly legitimized the market for downloaded music. The company introduced the iPod Mini, a smaller version of the iPod, in January to great industry acclaim and customer demand.
Perhaps most importantly, Apple has made its hardware and software easily compatible with the Windows operating system: the iPod runs on both platforms, and Apple's computers generally interface well with networks that run the Windows platform.
Evelyn Nussenbaum. Technology and Show Business Kiss and Make Up. The New York Times on the Web. (Free registration required). April 26, 2004.
John Markoff. Oh, Yeah, He Also Sells Computers. The New York Times on the Web. (Free registration required). April 25, 2004.
Steven Arnold. A Mac Collaborative Editor Breaks New Ground. SNTReport.com. March 2, 2004.
(n.b. The Times places stories in their fee-based archives after seven days.)
Palisade Systems, a network security company, has announced that it will launch PacketHound 3.0 this week, a software package this week that is designed to identify and block copyrighted songs as they are being traded online.
PacketHound is created by Audible Magic, a California-based software company, pursuant to a strategic partnership the two firms created in September 2003. The software has triggered interest in Washington, D.C., and skepticism in the peer-to-peer world and among some students and universities, according to a News.com story.
The the song-filtering software is backed strongly by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the large record companies' main lobbying organization. The announcement of PacketHound's release comes just a day after it became widely known that the RIAA had discontinued its amnesty program (.pdf) for file sharers. The policy change came to light in court papers RIAA filed in California, according to a second News.com story.
John Borland. New Tool Designed to Block Song Swaps. News.com. April 21, 2004.
Matt Hines. RIAA Drops Amnesty Program. News.com. April 20, 2004.
"New York-based Dodgeball.com has recently unveiled a beta version of a service that merges social networking with mobile phone text-messaging, so friends can discover each other's whereabouts.
"And social networking service ItsNotWhatYouKnow.com LLC plans to release a preview of its revamped and renamed social networking service, which includes the addition of Web conferencing.
"Both companies are much smaller than the big names in social networking, such as Friendster Inc., LinkedIn Ltd., Tribe Networks Inc. and even Google Inc.'s Orkut, but their new approaches point to a push to make social networking a feature of broader technologies."
Matt Hicks. Social Networking Stretches Its Reach. eWeek. April 8, 2004.
"As gaming companies move to Los Angeles and Hollywood agents broker deals between gamers and filmmakers, the two industries are growing closer, this time with gamers holding the upper hand."
Maureen Fan. Hollywood, Gaming Forge Closer Ties. San Jose Mercury News. April 9, 2004.
"Microsoft quietly launched a new site on Tuesday that combines blogs, discussion forums and other technology to improve communications with developers.
"Channel 9 was created by a group of engineers and "technology evangelists" at Microsoft that is convinced the software giant could do more to promote free discussion with outside developers. The name refers to the audio channel most airlines use to allow passengers to listen in on conversations between flight crew members."
David Becker. Blogs Put Developers in Microsoft 'Cockpit'. News.com. April 6, 2004.
"Microsoft is pushing its SharePoint technology as a tool for collaboration among office workers. SharePoint, a is also viewed as a major motivator for getting businesses to upgrade to current versions of key Microsoft products.
"Instead of the usual habit of saving documents to a hard drive, Microsoft wants you to place them in server-based collaborative 'work spaces' that can be accessed by multiple people. Such document sharing is one of the main ideas behind SharePoint, a critical part of Microsoft's strategy to unite business applications and processes. It's also viewed as a major motivator for getting businesses to upgrade to current versions of key Microsoft products."
David Becker. Sharing the Love -- and Data -- Through SharePoint. News.com. April 6, 2004.
"Who are the experts within your organization? Who has the most decision-making influence? Recently, managers have started mining data from e-mail, Web pages, and other digital media for clues that will help answer such questions. That’s a start, but it misses the real action: studies of office interactions indicate that as much as 80 percent of work time is spent in spoken conversation, and that critical pieces of information are transmitted by word of mouth in a serendipitous fashion.
"Fortunately, the data infrastructure for mining real-world interactions is already in place. Most working professionals already carry microphones (cell phones), and many also carry PDAs with ample computational horsepower. This foundation of mobile communications and processing power will support an exciting new suite of business applications: reality mining."
Alex Pentland. Reality Mining" the Organization. Technology Review. March 31, 2004.
The R.B. House Undergraduate Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel-Hill is implementing instant messaging as a service offering to patrons.
Update (April 1, 2004): SNTReport.com interviews Suchi Moranty, a librarian at UNC-CH's House library, about this initiative in its new Connections Column. The interview will be published on Monday, April 5. (KMD)
Line56.com has posted an interesting article about how one company used a slew of technologies -- including social networking software, portals, IM, videoconferencing -- to help manage its global presence. The article gives information professionals a glimpse of social software's possibilities for communication and collaboration.
Demir Barlas. A Virtual One-Room Company. Line56.com. March 11, 2004.
SubEthaEdit is a collaborative distributed text editor, combining the simplicity of TextEdit and the power of Rendezvous. It allows to share documents on a local network (with Rendezvous) or on the Internet. Every participating user can type simultaneously and see what others are typing. SubEthaEdit is also a capable text editor with most of the features of BBEdit. However, each SubEthaEdit document can be shared via Apple's Rendezvous technology.
SubEthaEdit uses Rendezvous. Apple's Rendezvous lets a user create an instant network of computers and smart devices just by getting them connected to each other. The computers and devices take over from there, automatically broadcasting and discovering what services each is offering for the use of others. The network could be as simple as two wireless PowerBook users communicating.
TheCodingMonkeys is a small group of computer science students at "Technische Universität München" (Technical University of Munich). TCM took form at the chair of applied software engineering, known for its continued commitment to the Macintosh platform. The developers will accept donations, but there are no overt requests for payment. SubEthaEdit is TheCodingMonkeys' first public product.
The software was developed in Germany. SNTReport believes that the freeware program is likely to trigger a wave of similar products in the collaborative editing segment.
Collaborative editing systems or CES allow multiple users to edit the same set of documents collaboratively over networks. The editing can take place at the same time or in a time shifted mode. CES are not confined to text. Image, multimedia, hypertext, hypermedia, spreadsheets, and three dimensional models among others can be manipulated in a collaborative editing environment.
Collaborative editing is faced with a set of social issues that support and improve the team work.
Users of Adobe Acrobat 6.0, Rendezvous (Macintosh only) Microsoft Office System 2003, and some specialized tools such as iStorm can explore collaborative editing within these applications.
The name "SubEthaEdit" is a tip of the hat to Douglas Adams and his Hitchhikers Guide trilogy. SubEthaEdit—formerly named "Hydra," and then TAFKAH—resonates with those who are fans of Douglas Adams' fiction. According to one of the developers, the name changed reduced the number of lawyers the company with whom the company had to work. "SubEtha" is a good shorthand way to refer to the software.
Collaborative editing has been a Holy Grail for some organizations for many years. SubEthaEdit has developed a system that allows all users to type anywhere in the text without locking parts of the text for other users. The result is that SubEthaEdit can be used with little or no training and no complex checking in, checking out, and file locking workarounds.
The software belongs to a category that is collaborative editing. Several people take notes at a lecture, a conference, or other activity. When each person participating transmits his / her notes, the resulting summary presents each note takers comments in the summary.
At a technical conference, for example, three people from the same organization may attend. One person can listen and comment on the technical aspect of a presentation. Another person might focus on the business implications of the presenter's comments. The third person might submit comments from attendees or specific detail about the implications of the presenter's remarks.
Instead of manually assembling the notes from three people, SubEthaEdit automatically presents the notes with some useful features.
At this time, SubEthaEdit runs on Macintosh computers. However, other developers of collaborative editors will examine SubEthaEdit's features and offer similar functions for Web browser versions.
Users can see other users' pictures in the SubEthaEdit window. Documents can be shared over the Internet. An authorized user can join a SubEthaEdit session regardless of the user's location. SubEthaEdit document identifiers can be used to open a document in a Web browser.
SubEthaEdit supports true, real-time, distributed collaboration. When a session is active authorized users can see other users' cursors and edits. If another person wishes to join a session, another user can authorize access to that individual. In the event of a user's failure to participate or taking unwarranted action, that user can be excluded from the session.
The software offers full Unicode support, line ending conversion from soft to hard line break, and supports word completion. Customization is supported.
Localized versions are available for French, German, and Chinese. Other languages are being added.
Work began on the software in February 2003. SubEthaEdit is now at Version 1.1.5.
The screenshot below shows four people taking meeting minutes together. On the right are the participants in the document session. SubEthaEdit calls this the "drawer." The status bar shows the current cursor position and the author of the text at that point in the document.
The second screenshot presents a summary of user details for a document. The color coded symbols indicate access or status of a user in a specific editing session.
iStorm includes a net-enabled chalkboard. In addition to a collaborative text editor, iStorm provides an integrated TeX equation interface. This software supports Synchronized navigation of imported PDF files and shared annotations. If a library needs to work collaboratively on a web page, iStorm includes a built in Web editing module.
iStorm is available at http://www.mathgamehouse.com/istorm/.
Large, distributed libraries with Macintoshes may want to experiment with the program initially for staff and, if the tests are positive, with availability to some library users and patrons. Teams participating in on site training programs and group work may benefit from a real-time, sharable note taking or collaborative editing for certain documents.
TheCodingMonkeys can be contacted via Email: monkeys [AT] codingmonkeys.de.
More information about the software is located here: http://www.codingmonkeys.de/subethaedit/
The software may be downloaded at http://www.appledarwin.com/downloads/macosx/productivity_tools/subethaedit.html
The Special Interest Group on Collaborative Editing at http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~scz/sigce/
Proceedings of the Fifth International Workshop on Collaborative Editing Systems at http://dsonline.computer.org/collaborative/events/iwces-5/
Alexander Klimetschek has written the DocSynch-Plugin for the Java-based text editor jEdit. It allows any number of developers to edit any number of documents in a local or wide area network. http://klimetschek.bei.t-online.de/
CBS Marketwatch's Bambi Francisco has an interesting commentary about the social networking phenomenon -- or rather its resurgence as a business model. Francisco reminds us of that social networking has had a past life, one that occurred briefly in the mid-nineties.
"Many will recall that a commercial version of an Internet social network, Sixdegrees, was launched back in 1996. Founder Andrew Weinreich said he raised just over $26 million for his company back then. Weinreich started Sixdegrees because he believed the Internet could make the process of networking more efficient. He was building upon a theory of social networks, which says that people are connected on average by six degrees."
Francisco also offers some keen insights on the areas in which social software vendors will specialize.
(Thanks to reader David Darst for the story.)
Bambi Francisco. "What's old is new again". CBS.MarketWatch.com. March 2, 2004.
Law firms usually take to new technology at a glacial pace. But, lo and behold, there is a Washington, DC law firm that has begun implementing social software to mine the contacts of its 120-lawyer staff. The result? One of the leads lead to $1 million in business.
I wonder if any librarians have been involved in implementing this law firm's foray into social software. Actually, I wonder if the firm's librarians have implemented any social software initiatives on their own. Such initiatives could be as simple as using an interactive Weblog, either as a suggestion box for the public, or as an internal communication tool between professionals.
If you have the answers to these musings, or have used social software to improve your library's service offerings, please contact us.
Demir Barlas, "Legal Services and Networking." Line56. Feb. 26, 2004.
Howard Dean has left the building (or at least the Democratic nomination race), but the legacy of his campaign's use of social networking tool remains interesting to any group seeking to create community or cash. This article from The Nation provides insights from O'Reilly's recently concluded Digital Democracy Teach-In, including a summary of Joe Trippi's keynote speech.
(Trippi, of course, was the principal architect behind the Dean campaign's social software strategy.)
Also, the author unknowingly sets the stage for a future SNTReport story:
"Some of the more intrepid [attendees] are also jointly taking notes on a document that exists only in cyberspace but appears on their computers and shows each other their comments, in real time."
SubEthaEdit is the technology to which the author refers. SubEthaEdit is a powerful program that allows for collaborative editing allows without locking parts of the text for other users.
Stephen Arnold, SNTReport's resident social software guru, will soon post his own article on SubEthaEdit and its applications.
Micah L. Sifry. "Tripping on Internet Populism." The Nation. Feb. 16, 2004.